Metro has been operating in Rostov for 10 years / PhotoXPress

On December 1, the bankruptcy trustee of ATP Super held an auction to sell a plot of land with an area of 8.8 hectares at 1v Korolev Avenue, with office, commercial and warehouse premises located on it. ATP Super was part of the Doninvest group of Mikhail Paramonov and was a dealer for TagAZ. At the end of last week, the auction protocol was published on the website of the Sberbank-AST electronic platform. Bids were submitted by Aleksandr Smolyaninov, an entrepreneur from Bataysk, and Metro Cash & Carry LLC. With a starting price of 286 million rubles, the retailer won at the fifth stage of the auction at a price of 358 million rubles.

“The site was acquired for the medium-term construction of another Metro small wholesale trade center in Rostov,” says Oksana Tokareva, a representative of Metro in Russia.

Rostov has two Metro centers, two Lentas, two O'Keys, four Auchans, one Magnit (another one is under construction) and one Selgros. "The retail market of the Rostov region does not present any competition to us, we decided that the prospects for small and medium-sized businesses in the region are so good that the presence of a third Metro center will contribute to the development of our company," says Tokareva. There are no specific construction dates yet, she adds.

"I acted under an agency agreement in the interests of a Moscow company, I heard that it was a major network player. The client did not think that there would be competitors, then they told me that the liquidity of the site was significantly higher and it would be possible to go further, but at the auction I only had the authority to make a certain increase," Smolyaninov said. He does not know the final interested party.

"Off the top of my head, the purchase price looks like a market price," says Pavel Remezov, director of format development at Lenta. He adds that the Rostov market is not yet saturated; Lenta plans to build a third hypermarket in Rostov and is currently choosing a site from several options. "I don't know any specific plans, but all large-format retail players present in Rostov intend to expand their presence," says a regional government official.

According to Vedomosti, for the first time in the south of Russia, the debtor's real estate or bank collateral sold at auction has become more expensive; previously, such lots had become much cheaper, and industrial complexes sold at auction had become several times and tens of times cheaper (see inset).

Metro left without discount