The diamond company Alrosa reported that it sold 100% of the shares of ZAO Gostinitsy Alrosa for 351.1 million rubles. The buyer was OOO Nord, registered in St. Petersburg.

Alrosa Hotels operates six hotels with a total of 563 rooms (see inset). The company's revenue in 2012 was 540.4 million rubles, with a net loss of 8.5 million rubles.

Alrosa announced its intention to get rid of non-core assets and sell its hotel business back in 2011. At that time, the asking price for the hotel company was 1.516 billion rubles – this was a market valuation prepared by an independent appraiser, and the hotel in St. Petersburg had not yet been put into operation.

Alrosa insisted on selling the entire company as a whole, rather than breaking it up into parts, so no buyers were found, and the price was falling. At the fifth auction, the starting price was already five times less than the initial one – 303.2 million rubles. This time, there were seven bidders for the hotels, one of whom was not admitted to the auction due to errors in the documentation, says a company representative, without disclosing their names.

According to SPARK-Interfax, there are 233 Nord LLCs registered in St. Petersburg, 26 of which are engaged in real estate transactions. The buyer is a private investor associated with people from the oil business, says a source close to one of the Alrosa shareholders.

In addition to the transaction amount, the buyer will have to pay the hotel company's debts. Under the terms of the agreement, the buyer assumes the debt of Alrosa Hotels in the amount of 1.8 billion rubles to the diamond mining company; until the debt is repaid, some of the properties will remain as collateral with Alrosa, the company's statement says. Alrosa, as the parent company, has given this money at various times for the reconstruction of hotels in Arkhangelsk, Anapa and St. Petersburg, the company representative explains.

The auction documentation states that the buyer will pay 200 million rubles annually (from December 2013 to December 2021), with interest accrued at a rate of 0.5% per annum.

Stanislav Ivashkevich, Deputy General Director for Hospitality Industry Development at CBRE, believes that this is a low price for such properties, especially considering that the debt is being repaid in installments. He calls all of the company's properties high-quality and successful, but considers the hotel in St. Petersburg to be particularly attractive. Along with the hotels in Arkhangelsk and Mirny, this is the company's most attractive asset, agrees Dmitry Ivanov, General Director of Aurora Hospitality Group. This hotel was built recently (it was commissioned at the end of 2011 – Vedomosti), is located in a prestigious area, and there are no large chain hotels nearby, he explains. Ivanov estimates the St. Petersburg hotel at 700–750 million rubles – this is the market price, while the deal was probably discounted. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the cost of the hotel in St. Petersburg could be in the range of $28–32 million, i.e. $180,000–200,000 per room.

Alrosa sold hotels on fifth attempt