OREANDA-NEWS  China's Shanghai Industrial Investment Company (SIIC) has sold its stake in the Zhemchuzhnaya Plaza Shopping and Entertainment Center in St. Petersburg. This is reported by the newspaper Vedomosti.

The Chinese investor's share was bought by Central Properties. Aurora Group became the partner and consultant of the transaction — it paid from six to seven billion rubles for 50 percent of the shopping center. Experts interviewed by the publication called the purchase a strategic investment in a reliable and profitable asset.

Zhemchuzhnaya Plaza shopping mall, built in 2013 on Peterhof Highway, is one of the largest shopping malls in St. Petersburg. Initially, the owner of the shopping center, in addition to SIIC, was the Finnish SRV Group, which decided to leave Russia in 2022.

As Valeria Shuraeva, head of retail and hotel analytics at IBC Real Estate, previously noted, over the past few years, the area of new shopping centers in Moscow has significantly decreased. From 2015 to 2025, the average area of shopping malls being commissioned in Moscow was 23.1 thousand square meters, which is 31 percent less than that of shopping malls built in 2000-2014. The leasable area of 10 of the 11 shopping malls opened in less than 2025 is about 20 thousand square meters, while individual facilities do not exceed four thousand square meters.