Southern Project LLC purchased 100% shares of Novy Svet winery for USD 25mln. The new shareholder company is associated with Yuri Kovalchuk, a close friend of the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Apart from the factory producing sparkling wines, the proposed lot included nine land plots amounting to 93.5 thousand sq. meters cumulatively and the other buildings therein totaling 60 thousand sq. meters area. In September, the self-proclaimed State Council of Crimea made a decision to set on sale the winery located over 20ha territory near Sudak city. The starting price was put at USD 24mln.
The auction sales were held at the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of the Crimea. Voom-Vokh Invest LLC and Southern Project LLC participated in the bid, the latter becoming a winner.
The history of the plant of champagne wines Novy Svet (New World) dates back in 1878. The founder of the plant was Prince Lev Golitsyn (Galitzine), the founder of the Crimean and Russian winemaking.
The Russian intruders took the plant from Ukraine in 2014 and the enterprise was included in the Western sanctions list in the same year.
The deal can be considered as the largest of all sales of the Ukrainian state property in the annexed Crimea.
To note, sparkling wines of TM Novy Svet has been produced at Kharkiv Champagne Wine Plant in Ukraine since end-2015.
