Newspaper: Rosimannus' involvement in new Tallinn shopping center comes to light
Rain Rosimannus, considered the mastermind of Estonia’s Reform Party, recently formalized, via a Singaporean business, his holding in Arsenal Centre, a shopping center opened in Põhja-Tallinn last fall whose property was sold by state real estate firm Riigi Kinnisvara AS (RKAS) in a selection procedure of remarkably short duration as a result of decisions made by politicians of the ruling IRL and Reform coalition. The RKAS board was headed at the time by Taavi Rõivas.
Business daily Äripäev (link in Estonian) wrote that while Rõivas, who was to later be chairman of the Reform Party, was chairman of the board at RKAS, the properties of former Tallinn military manufacturing plant Arsenal were sold to a company which had for years covertly involved Rosimannus.
According to the paper’s information, the Reform politician’s investment was veiled as an option in the name of Aadu Oja, a good friend with an investment banking and real estate development background who was the director and one of the owners of the shopping center’s parent firm Arsenal Center.
Before Christmas, however, Singaporean firm Roy & Klas Pte.Ltd, behind which was Rosimannus, became a shareholder of the Oja-owned AO Arendus.
Rosimannus told the newspaper that it was decided at the time to draw up the transaction as an option as the whole of the development was to take place in a Tallinn ruled by Edgar Savisaar and they lacked full certainty that his involvement in a political party wouldn’t be used as a pretext for biased treatment by city powers, which could have undermined the entire project.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla