Arricano Real Estate Plc (Cyprus) has said that the City Mall Shopping Center (Zaporizhia) operates and pays taxes, refuting claims by the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) that the asset is idle.

"Arricano Real Estate Plc states that the ARMA official's remarks about City Mall are manipulative. Arricano emphasizes that City Mall is not 'idle' as claimed by the ARMA official but operates daily for Ukraine's benefit, paying taxes to the state budget, providing jobs for tenants, and supplying goods and services to consumers in frontline areas of Zaporizhia region," Arricano said in a press release.

The company that owns the mall paid approximately UAH 67 million to various budgets from 2022 to 2024. The total amount of taxes paid by the Arricano Group in Ukraine from 2022 to 2023 exceeds UAH 326.8 million.

The company said that actions by law enforcement agencies and ARMA regarding the unwarranted seizure and transfer of foreign investor property management will lead to investment claims against the state. Arricano will use all available means to protect its rights, including beyond Ukraine.

Additionally, on July 25, 2024, the Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv decided to lift the seizure of the RayON Shopping Center, imposed in October 2023, deeming the prosecution's arguments insufficient. The court's decision has not yet been published.

Arricano insists on the groundlessness of transferring other company shopping centers to ARMA's management and warns potential participants in the agency's competitions for asset managers about the absence of court decisions depriving the company of the right to use the property. Attempts to seize Arricano's assets will contradict the Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv's rulings from October 10, 2023 (seizing premises of Kyiv shopping centers RayON and Prospect without transferring them to ARMA).

Previously, ARMA reported that the City Mall shopping center was inspected by Deputy Head of the Agency for European Integration Grigol Katamadze during his working trip to Zaporizhia. He announced plans to hold a competition for selecting an asset manager.

"No asset that can effectively work for the state will be overlooked. They should not be idle but should replenish the state treasury. This is more important now than ever," Katamadze was quoted in ARMA's press release.