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Friday, February 22, 2013

Morgan Stanley fund buys Moscow mall for $1.2 bln, (NYSE: MS)

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) said one of its funds had bought the Metropolis shopping mall in northwest Moscow, in what it called Russia's biggest commercial real estate deal. Metropolis, which has a total size of 205,000 square metres, is one of Russia's biggest shopping centres and was acquired from Capital Partners, a real estate developer, for a price of $1.2 billion, several sources told Reuters."The acquisition of the Metropolis shopping centre is the largest-ever transaction in the Russian commercial real estate market," MSREI said in a statement. It did not disclose terms.The deal comes as Russia enjoys a spending boom and its economy grows thanks to high commodity prices. MSREI said Metropolis was visited by around 55,000 people per day last year, making it one of the busiest in town."The acquisition is consistent with our strategy of investing in high quality assets in Russia, a market that should continue to benefit from strong growth in consumer demand," Brian Niles, head of MSREI EMEA, said in the statement.

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides its products and services to a range of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions and individuals. Shares of MS remained unchanged at $22.83. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $12.26 and as high as $24.47. On average, 20754700 shares of MS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.



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