Morgan Stanley pays $1.05 billion for Russian shopping centre

Investment bank Morgan Stanley will pay US$1.1 billion (A$1.05 billion) to purchase the largest shopping centre in St Petersburg.

The bank’s Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund VII will purchase the Galleria Mall from Meridian Capital CIS Fund, a private investment fund backed by a group of Kazakh investors.

The transaction is due to be completed later this month.

Galleria cost US$380 million to build. It opened in November 2010 and has 250 stores occupying 93,000 square metres over five floors.

It includes a multi-screen movie theatre, a 27-lane bowling alley plus underground parking for 1,200 vehicles.

By comparison, Australia’s biggest shopping centre is the Chadstone Mall in south-East Melbourne, which is owned by Colonial First State. It has 126,000 square metres of gross lettable area and is valued at $1.53 billion.