Your shopping experience in Russia is all set to get better and bigger courtesy, the opening of Russia’s biggest mall, Vegas. A venture of billionaire Aras Agalarov, this16.7 billion-ruble ($540 million) gigantic mall spreads across a cool 400,000 square meters (4.3 million square feet)! The shopping complex is home to French retailer Groupe Auchan SA, Russian consumer electronics chain OAO M.video, Britain’s Next Plc, and Spain’s Inditex SA. Given the rise in Russia’s retail spending, Agalarov’s Crocus Group is confident their project will succeed. So high are the confidence levels that the billionaire has pledged to build two more shopping centers in Moscow in the next three years.
“Our Vegas mall is just a start for new projects,” Emin Agalarov, the billionaire’s son and Crocus commercial director, told reporters at the ceremony. “We are planning two more Vegas malls, and we won’t stop at that.” Crocus expects to borrow from state-controlled lender OAO Sberbank (who has already lent 11 billion rubles for the Vegas) for future projects.
Well, with two more such lavish malls in the offing, Russia’s retail spending is bound to grow by leaps and bounds.
[Businessweek]
