Giant Paris towers plan wins Russian financing
Paris , March 14, 2013
A Russian developer who plans to build what would be Europe's tallest residential towers in Paris said he had provisionally lined up financing from Russia's Sberbank towards the 2.3 billion euro ($3 billion) project.
The loan amount was not specified and developer Emin Iskenderov told Reuters the agreement signed with Sberbank was preliminary in nature, but it brings a step closer a plan to build the luxury modern apartments in a city known for its low-rise 19th century boulevards.
A Sberbank spokesman in Moscow declined to comment.
The plan to build "a Manhattan in the French style" beside the Seine has caused an uproar because of its scale and because it would mean demolishing some existing buildings near La Defense business district.
"We signed a protocol with Sberbank, the biggest Russian bank, on March 6," Iskenderov told Reuters on Wednesday.
"It's a protocol preliminary to a final loan agreement because there are conditions to be complied with but this allows us to say who we'll be working with."
In an interview in November, Iskenderov had said he expected to obtain financing for 1.2 billion euros of the project's cost, with most of the rest financed from the pre-sale of apartments.
On Wednesday, he said the "Hermitage Plaza" towers, designed by British architect Norman Foster, would be completed in late 2018 or early 2019. The plan is for towers just slightly shorter than the Eiffel Tower. - Reuters
More INTERNATIONAL NEWS Stories
- $590m jackpot winning ticket sold in Florida
- Texas joins flood of states suing BP
- Switzerland close to deal in US tax dispute
- Israel warns against Russia arms supply to Syria
- Yahoo! may buy Tumblr for $1.1bn
- US orders Canadian bank to revise laws
- Talks unlikely to succeed says Assad
- IILM seeks dealers for sukuk issue
- Severn Trent rejects $7.2bn Kuwait bid offer
- US chides Russia over missile delivery to Assad
