The Kempinski hotel, worth EUR 57m, will have almost 23,000 m2, the flats some 14,000 m2 and the offices around 15,000 m2, the company said, adding that it will also build service areas on another 23,000 m2.

The complex was designed by the Moscow-based studio SPEECH LCC, while investor Elite Estate JLCC set the deadline for the construction of Kempinski for the end of 2013 and for the entire compound for the end of 2014.

Elite Estate will secure more than half of the money from its own resources, while the rest will be funded from a loan taken with an international consortium of banks.

The business daily Finance reported today that the banks, headed by Slovenia's No 1 bank NLB, will extend a EUR 48m loan to the bank Sberbank Belorusija.

According to the daily, Slovenian companies will be able to get 40% of the business regarding the construction of the hotel, 15% will go to Belarus companies and the rest to companies from other countries.

Riko, which has a strong presence in countries of the former Soviet Union, in particular in Russia, has been active in Belarus for over a decade.