OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 February 2009 was announced, that at present, the MIRAX GROUP Corporation has completed negotiations for a 2-year restructuring of its medium-term debt under credits with MDM Bank (USD 38.5 million), Credit Europe Bank (USD 13.5 million), and Credit Suisse (USD 265 million). And at final stages are the talks for restructuring the second CLN issue (USD 180 million).

So, the amount of the corporations’ unrestructured credit liabilities due in 2009 will come to USD 133 million. Receivables on MIRAX GROUP’s completed contracts total USD 861 million.

Today, the MIRAX GROUP Board of Directors presented the 2008 estimate and development strategy for 2009.

“As for 2008, we focused on 3 main areas: minimization of administrative and operating costs, concentrating efforts on the projects under construction, using ‘safety cushions’ for redemption of short-term debts and restructuring of the medium-term credits. To date, I can say with confidence that implementation of those three steps has allowed the company to make it through the first wave of the crisis. This makes us surefooted in anticipation of the coming years 2009 and 2010,” said Sergey Polonsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MIRAX GROUP.

Thus, in 2008 the total area of the residential and commercial real estate commissioned by MIRAX GROUP was 793,187 sq.m. In particular, the corporation completed upgrading of the Sechenov Academy Pharmaceutics Department building (area of more than 50 thousand sq.m) and modernization of Kursky Railway Station (area:  31.9 thousand sq. m).

The completed and commissioned residential real estate projects include housing complexes MIRAX PARK (area: 327,046 sq.m) and Kutuzovsky Riviera (area: 184,241 sq.m). As to commercial real estate, Tower West of the Federation Business Complex has been completed and commissioned.

“In 2008, we set to complete the projects under construction. It means that all projects, where construction site works have commenced, will be completed. We manage to keep the construction progress rate of all our current projects, which allows us to stick to the original commissioning dates”, commented on the construction strategy Maxim Privezentsev, member of the MIRAX GROUP Board of Directors.

According to estimates made by the MIRAX GROUP Board of Directors, the key financial indicators will, on the average, grow by 36% following the results of 2008. Thus, earnings for 2008 are estimated at USD 1,652.7 million (+29% growth to 2007), net profit - at USD 616.4 million (+41% to 2007), EBITDA – 819 million (+39% to 2007).

“We foresaw worsening of the situation on financial markets as far back as 2007, that’s when we began creating the ‘safety cushion’ that allowed the corporation to move unscathed though the period of acute shortage of liquidity in September-October of 2008. Besides, we opted for a conservative policy which suggests giving up on loans, focusing on timely repayment of all short-term liabilities and restructuring of medium-term debts”, said Dmitry Lutsenko, Member of the Board of Directors of MIRAX GROUP.

Therefore, starting from September 2008 until now MIRAX GROUP has redeemed on time the following short-term credit liabilities:

    * USD 8.5 million – payment of the 3rd coupon yield on the 2nd CLN issue

    * 164.4 million rubles – payment of the 4th coupon yield on the 2nd bond issue

    * USD 50 million – repayment of the Promsvyazbank credit

    * USD 6.75 million – payment of the 1st coupon yield on the 3rd CLN issue

    * USD 11.5 million – repayment of the MDM-Bank credit

    * USD 1.5 million – repayment of the Credit Europe Bank credit

    * USD 12.1 million – payment of the Credit Suisse interest income

At present, the MIRAX GROUP Corporation has completed negotiations for a 2-year restructuring of its medium-term debt under credits with MDM Bank (USD 38.5 million), Credit Europe Bank (USD 13.5 million), and Credit Suisse (USD 265 million). And the talks for restructuring the second issue of CLN (USD 180 million) are nearing completion.

So, the amount of the corporations’ unrestructured credit liabilities due in 2009 will come to USD 133 million. Receivables on MIRAX GROUP’s completed contracts total USD 861 million.

“With the 2008 net profit of USD 616.4 million and the 2009 construction budget of USD 344,118 million we feel confident about the future, - commented on the financial strategy Dmitry Lutsenko, Member of the Board of Directors of MIRAX GROUP. – As for 2009, we have a pessimistic forecast, assuming that earnings will be about USD 0.7 billion”, he added.

“In 2009, we will continue implementing the strategy of “manual” business management. The benchmarks of the strategy will not change - they include optimization of administrative and operating costs, focusing on the projects under construction, and conservative financial policy. In particular, we have elected not to pay dividends, premiums, and bonuses to the Corporation’s management for 2008 and 2009”, said Sergey Polonsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MIRAX GROUP.

In 2009, MIRAX GROUP plans to commission about 450,000 sq. m of residential and 180,000 sq. m of commercial real estate.