Sberbank Asset Management Acquires PNK Park Veshki Near Moscow, Extending PNK-Sberbank Industrial Fund Partnership That Began in 2016

On approximately July 24, 2020, Sberbank Asset Management (Sberbank AM) — the asset-management arm of Russia’s largest state-owned bank — formally signed an agreement to acquire PNK Park Veshki, a 108,000-square-meter two-story multi-temperature distribution center located near Moscow on the Altufyevskoye Shosse, from PNK Group (Russia). The property was fully leased to VkusVill, an organic goods distributor, and became part of the closed-end mutual fund “Sberbank — Arendny Biznes 3” (Rental Business 3 Fund), a structured vehicle for accredited investors to own commercial real estate assets generating regular rent.

The 2016 Baseline

Per the manager of PNK Development’s investment fund, Dmitry Pilevin (quoted in trade press), the Sberbank-PNK relationship dates to 2016, “when PNK group’s projects were included into Sberbank’s industrial property fund.” The 2020 PNK Park Veshki acquisition was therefore a deepening of a four-year partnership, not an initial transaction.

The PNK-Sberbank Partnership Timeline

The December 2022 Rostov transaction is load-bearing for the sanctions timeline: Sberbank was added to the OFAC SDN list on April 6, 2022 (full blocking sanctions, after earlier Directive 2/3 restrictions effective March 26, 2022). A Sber fund acquiring assets from PNK’s Russian operations in December 2022 — eight months after SDN designation — occurred entirely within the post-OFAC-sanction window.

Sanctions Timeline Correction

The existing sharkov-andrey profile stated that Sberbank was “OFAC-sanctioned since February 2022.” This requires correction:

• February 24, 2022: OFAC Directive 2 (under EO 14024) — prohibited U.S. financial institutions from maintaining correspondent accounts for Sberbank; effective March 26, 2022.
• April 6, 2022: OFAC SDN list designation — full blocking sanctions on Sberbank and 42 subsidiaries. U.S. persons prohibited from dealing with Sberbank, any entity 50%+ owned by Sberbank, or their property.

The Russian PNK entity’s continued transactions with Sberbank AM after April 2022 were conducted from Russia and would involve Russian-law entities. Whether any U.S. nexus exists — through Sharkov personally, through U.S. financial channels, or through the not-yet-separated U.S. PNK entities — is the key question for sanctions-compliance analysis.

The 2023 Severance

The Russian and U.S. PNK entities were formally separated in 2023, when Sharkov “recalled the brand from Russia” (per his February 20, 2025 deposition). The Russian entity subsequently operated as NK Group. The timing means the Rostov-on-Don December 2022 transaction with Sberbank’s fund occurred while the US and Russian PNK entities were still formally unified under Sharkov’s ownership, and the formal severance came approximately a year later.

Significance

This is the primary documented evidence for the PNK-Sberbank financial relationship. The relationship is confirmed from 2016 through at least December 2022 — spanning the invasion of Ukraine, the OFAC Directive 2 restrictions (March 2022), and the SDN full blocking sanctions (April 2022). The confirmed relationship terminated (or at least ceased being publicly documented) before the 2023 US-Russia PNK severance. No direct evidence of Sberbank involvement in U.S. PNK operations has been located.

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