In August 2015 Arricano Real Estate plc received an official letter from the Public Prosecutor’s office of Odessa region confirming retraction of their 15 May 2015 legal claim to the Higher Administrative court of Ukraine against property developer Vector Capital Ltd, who are part of Arricano Group. Arricano, one of leading commercial property developers, specialises in development and operation of shopping and entertainment centres in Ukraine and can now go ahead with the Odessa Mall project.

The letter was handed over to Svetlana Ren’kas, Vector Capital Ltd Managing director after the first session of the Economic development council at which Arricano made a presentation of Odessa Mall construction plan.

Economic development council is the first regional advisory body created on M.Saakashvili initiative with the purpose to implement revolutionary change and combat corruption in Odessa region. Entrepreneurs and public authorities join their efforts in order to facilitate implementation of regional development projects needing support. Mikhail Saakashvili pointed out that the mere fact of Public Prosecutor retracting their claim at the ultimate appeal instance (cassation), was an unprecedented event for Ukraine. This put an end to the 2-year long legal proceedings against the property developer.

According to Arricano’s CEO Mikhail Merkulov, the two years of constant pressure from the Prosecutor office had been putting on hold the USD 80 mln investment in Odessa. Now this has changed. The support of public authorities and an open dialogue with investors will attract investment to Odessa thus enabling city development. The development plan of Odessa Mall, for example, envisages not only the construction of a premium shopping complex, but also creation of new jobs - over 2000 of them at the construction phase and over 1000 after its completion. In addition, the project will contribute Hr 38 mln. of tax payments to the municipal treasury.

“Corruption hinders city and business development and acts as barrier to international investment. That is why the support we received from the Head of ORA (Odessa Regional Administration) Mikhail Saakashvili and termination of legal actions against Arricano Real Estate plc is a good sign for other investors”- remarked Arricano CEO Mikhail Merkulov.