Metropol Group

Metropol (Группа «МЕТРОПОЛЬ») is a Moscow investment group. In 2010 The Moscow Times described its founder, Mikhail Slipenchuk, as "a geographer turned investment banker", with interests in broking, a bank, a venture fund and zinc mining in Buryatia through East Siberia Mining Company. Altapress, in 2009, added housing in Hanoi and hotels on the French Riviera. [1,2]

Putnik

SeeNews reports that Metropol, through the Cyprus company Acciona Investments Limited, took control in 2007 of about 83% of Putnik, the Serbian tourism group. On 30 November 2010 the Serbian government reported a €7 million investment by "the Metropol Group" in "the renovated three star Tulip Inn Putnik Hotel" in New Belgrade, of 65 single and 19 double rooms and 12 suites, and called it the largest Russian investment in Serbian tourism. A later SeeNews item, dated 5 December without a year, reports that Putnik's shareholders unanimously approved the sale of the Tulip Inn. In March 2020, Hotel Putnik Beograd was still the company that lent that hotel to the Serbian government for the Covid-19 response. [3,4,5]

Kopaonik And Budva

In a group press-centre interview of 26 November 2012, the head of Metropol Express called Putnik "a unit of METROPOL Group of Companies" and named "two Kopaonik hotels owned by Metropol Group": Club A, of 97 rooms, and Putnik, of 90, at Serbia's largest ski resort. She added: "we have another nice hotel called Admiral in the town of Budva in Montenegro."

Mergen Bator

The group's press centre reported on 26 November 2013 that the hotel Mergen Bator "opened on November 23 in Ulan-Ude", as part of the group's "Putnik" collection: 37 rooms from standard single to a presidential suite of 172 square metres, four conference halls and underground parking. A meetings directory confirms 37 rooms at Borsoeva Street 19B. Booking sites now list the house as Cosmos Selection Ulan-Ude, five stars, with Mergen Bator as its former name. [7,8,9,10]

Editorial note — ⚑ The founding year is disputed: Altapress says Slipenchuk created Metropol in 1995, after trading securities from October 1993; The Moscow Times says "the early 1990s". ⚑ TopHotels dates Mergen Bator to January 2013; the group dates the opening 23 November 2013. ⚑ When the house passed to the Cosmos name, and whether Metropol still owns it, is not established. ⚑ The year of the Tulip Inn sale vote is not printed; the March 2020 report suggests the hotel stayed with Putnik's Belgrade company. ⚑ The group's English press centre stops in 2016. [1,2,5,7,9,11]