OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2013. Sberbank CIB is announcing the closure of a deal whereby O1 Properties has acquired the White Square business center from a consortium between developer AIG/Lincoln, Russian investment bank VTB Capital and global private investment firm TPG Holdings.

Under the transaction, Sberbank CIB1 provided financial advisory to O1 Properties and arranged the financing2 for the latter’s acquisition of the White Square business center. At the same time, Sberbank Merchant Banking3 acquired a 33% stake in the project company in the form of convertible preferred shares.

The transaction was prepared by the Sberbank CIB joint team, which included the Real Estate Finance Division, Client Managers Division of the Department of Corporate Clients, Investment Banking Department and Sberbank Merchant Banking. Financial advisory services were provided by Sberbank CIB’s Investment Banking Department. The deal was the largest M&A transaction in the Russian real estate market in 2012.

Dmitry Mints, Chairman of the Board of O1 Properties, commented on the transaction: “The acquisition of White Square was a landmark event for our company. The office center will occupy an important place in the portfolio of O1 Properties and will bring its total value to nearly \\$4 bln. We would like to thank the Sberbank CIB team for their well-coordinated, highly professional work and client-oriented approach. Thanks to their efforts, it was possible to prepare and execute this large-scale and complex transaction in an unprecedentedly short time frame.”

Alexander Bazarov, member of the Management Board, Senior Vice President of Sberbank of Russia and Co-head of Sberbank CIB, remarked: “This is the first deal of its kind for Sberbank CIB which required that we simultaneously employ comprehensive expertise in the areas of investment banking and mergers and acquisitions, as well as in debt financing for real estate and private equity. The successful outcome of this challenging deal, which was arranged in record time, is clear proof of the effectiveness of the model employed by the corporate and investment banking business which was created by the integration of Sberbank of Russia and Troika Dialog. This deal demonstrated the new capabilities of the country’s largest bank in terms of its ability to arrange complex financial solutions in the interests of its clients. We would like to thank O1 Properties and the consortium of sellers for their close collaboration at every stage of the deal.”

The global law firms Linklaters LLP and Clifford Chance provided legal support to 01 Properties on the deal and the global law firm Herbert Smith provided legal support to Sberbank CIB.

The White Square business center, which totals 76,542 sq. meters, is one of the largest business centers in Moscow. Its tenants include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, McKinsey, Microsoft and other companies.

Information for editors:

O1 Properties

O1 Properties is one of the largest owners of high quality (A and B+/B class) office properties in Moscow. The company owns and manages a portfolio of ten fully-functioning business centres (with a total leasable area of 426,000 sq. m) in the key business districts of the Russian capital. In addition, the Company owns a development project that accounts for less than 1% of the market value of O1 Properties’ portfolio. According to a Valuation Report compiled by Cushman & Wakefield, the market value of the Company’s assets as of December 31, 2012 was USD3.7 bln.

 1 On the basis of CJSC “Sberbank CIB”

2 Financing provided by OJSC “Sberbank of Russia”

3 A business unit of Sberbank CIB