Ukio wants to build mega-center in Belarus

VILNIUS - Ukio Bank has announced that its investment firm planned to invest $300 million in the creation of a shopping, entertainment and sports center in Minsk, thus continuing the firm's ambitious acquisition plans abroad.
Juras Rindinas, manager of the Belarus section of Ukio Bankas Investment Group, told the Baltic News Service that the bank sees great potential in the Belarusian market.
"Belarus is a dynamic East European market with a population of about 10 million. Minsk, which accounts for about one-fifth of population, is the center of Belarus' industry, politics, science and culture," Rindinas said.
"Compared with other post-Soviet countries, which first ruined their economy and later rebuilt it with great efforts, Belarus has preserved its potential," he added.

The Minsk Leisure Center, according to Rindinas, would occupy 32 hectares in downtown Minsk. It would accommodate a 35,000 square meter health center equipped with sports facilities, a concert hall and family leisure center, a hotel with 750 beds and 22,000 square meters in office space.
UBIG also wants to build a 15,000-seat football stadium compliant with international standards and construct a 40,000 square meter trade center in its vicinity, Rindinas added.
UBIG would seek to build the stadium in 2008, Rindinas said, adding that the whole complex would take three or four years to complete.
Ukio Bankas is 33 percent owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov, who apparently controls another 8.3 percent through his mother, Zinaida Romanova.
In recent years Romanov has been increasingly active in purchasing foreign assets. He bought Edinburgh's Hearts soccer team several years ago, and last month purchased the former headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, located in downtown Edinburgh, for 20 million pounds sterling.

According to reports, Ukio Bankas intends to open a branch office in Scotland.
On June 11 the bank announced that earnings over the first five months of the year amounted to 28.4 million litas (8.2 million euros), up more than twofold from last year's result. The bank's assets soared 22 percent to 3.68 billion litas.
The investment group is also implementing projects in Russia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Tajikistan.