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Andrei Berezin: “There are a lot of interesting things that require my attention”

06.04.2022 в 12:09 | время чтения: 7 мин.

Co-owner of Euroinvest Group Andrey Berezin told about the plans to grow development business in St. Petersburg, a device to fight cancer, staff shortage which “kills” science.

Andrey, you’ve been the owner of the region’s major land assets for many years. How has your land portfolio changed recently?

— Generally speaking, the land bank does not have any significance in today’s activities of Euroinvest. The competence of the developer, his experience and his feeling of the market conditions are much more important. The experience of our development subdivision, Euroinvest Development, can in fact confirm that. Today the company builds housing both on its own land and on the land plots of its partners. It started with economy class projects in Murino and Kudrovo, and now it also works in St. Petersburg. Its projects are absolutely different; they are for different demand. For example, a special feature of “ID Murino” is its co-working spaces and public spaces. But “ID Moskovsky” has no co-working spaces at all, but has a spa on the roof. As for “ID Park Pobedy”, there will be a whole cluster of educational classes for children and adults on the first floors. It is a new consumer trend. In the future, Euroinvest Development will take up complex development.

How big is Euroinvest Development’s project portfolio now?

— We have about 200 thousand square meters of residential space in progress and the same amount is under development. The company does not have a goal to build millions of square meters per year. But it has to be high-quality housing built quickly. Speed affects the prime cost and allows the company to be prepared for any stress tests. In addition, the relatively small volume of development gives the opportunity to effectively manage prime costs and sales.

In general, has setting up your own development company met your expectations? After switching to escrow accounts, what has changed for you?

— It was the right idea, and it has paid off. If we talk about the use of escrow accounts, by and large, they have only positive effects on the market. Reliable builders with good reputations no longer have problems with financing.

How are your relationships with the banks? Do they lend you money willingly?

— We have no problems with banks. They even compete, perhaps, for the opportunity to work with us (using escrow accounts). Besides, we have enough of our own funds and other sources of financing.

Your management company Murino coordinates the work on infrastructure development in Murino-Devyatkino. How is this work progressing? Are there any problems?

— MC Murino is directly responsible for water supply and wastewater disposal in Western Murino. Everything is great with this. But some time ago we were asked to coordinate the construction of an interchange to connect Murino to the Ring Road. Such a wonderful social burden. It was supposed to be a public-private partnership. In the end, of course, the interchange was built, but … some developers have not fulfilled their obligations to finance the project: someone went bankrupt, someone could not. And MC Murino had to close these debts at their own expense. We coped with this task, although, I emphasize, this is absolutely non-core story for us and the costs were not compensated by anyone.

If you are again asked by the authorities to be a coordinator for some important infrastructure project, would you agree to it?

— Of course we would consider such a request, but we will be more attentive to other participants in such consortiums.

Euroinvest Development was completing the projects in Leningrad region after Navis went bankrupt. What do you think of this experience?

— Yes, we completed building the Sozvezdie housing estate and the Shcheglovskaya Usadba housing estate. In this case, too, an interesting legal conflict arose: we completed and handed over the projects, and then the external manager sued us and wanted us to pay something for the former property developer.

Apparently, you will no longer take on the construction of other people’s projects…

— This requires a clearer legal framework and better agreements with the authorities.

What about new projects in your venture foundation “EuroVenture” ?

One of the key projects of the foundation at the moment is the creation of a unique medical device for the treatment of oncological diseases. This device will act with a beam of X-rays on internal tumors and thus prevent them from developing. We presented a prototype of the device at the Russian Industrialist exhibition. Now it is being clinically tested. According to preliminary estimates, the future sales market only in CIS countries, India, and China is estimated at almost $500 million. On the market, this device will cost about $500,000.

Considering that it is based on a unique X-ray tube created by Svetlana-Rentgen specialists, it would be logical to assemble the complex at our site. Preliminary investments in the creation of production and sales of this device are estimated at 200 million rubles. I think we will look for co-investors. Perhaps even in the form of public-private partnership. Generally speaking, the situation with the pandemic has shown that medical developments remain relevant, so medical electronics will be the focus of the EuroVenture Foundation.

What is money for you personally and do you need a lot of it to be happy?

— You know, when they put everyone under quarantine in the spring, I went to the country house. And somehow it became clear that I personally do not need a lot of money. I need it to do something interesting, to develop something. And when there is lockdown all around, you sit around and enjoy life. There is no fuss, no rush, everything is measured, but you get bored quickly. And you realize that you have to do something. Not for the money, but because movement is life. And money is energy. Up to a certain point it gives a person freedom. And then either you understand where and what you can use it for, or you become dependent on it. Everyone makes this choice for themselves.

Synopsis

Andrei Berezin was born in 1967 in Leningrad. In 1990 he graduated with honors from Ustinov Leningrad Mechanical Institute with a degree in automatic control systems engineering.

In 1993 he participated in the creation of the North-West Fisheries Company.

In 1995, he co-founded Euroinvest Investment Company with Yury Vasiliev, and has been its Chairman of the Board ever since.

Today Euroinvest is a diversified holding company, which includes companies and projects from different economy sectors.

One of the directions of Euroinvest work is legal and engineering support for the development of land plots and territories in St. Petersburg, Leningrad region and other regions.

At the end of 2017 Euroinvest Group created its own construction division “Euroinvest Development”, which is engaged in the construction of housing and other objects, thus forming a full cycle development business.

A relatively new direction for Euroinvest became the agro-industrial sector. Agrocluster “Krasnoye Znamya” in the Pskov region specializes in the production of grain and livestock fodder base.

In May 2017 the managers of IC “Euroinvest” established a venture foundation EuroVenture with the initial volume of €10 million. Priority areas of investment are innovative developments in the scientific and technical sphere, as well as projects in the creative industry.

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