Sat, Feb 11 2012

Bulgaria's pre-accession moments

Mon, Oct 02 2006 09:00 CET

byIvan Vatahov

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Estonian real estate company Arco Vara Group plans to build a five-million euro residential project in Sofia next year, firm officials said September 21.

The project will be the company's first investment in Bulgaria.

"We will buy the plot in three months, then do the architectural plan, get all the permissions and start the construction next summer," Arco Vara CEO Viljar Arakas said.

The company wants to gain confidence in the Bulgarian market through this project and afterward build bigger and more expensive residential units, mainly in Sofia, Arakas said.

Arco Vara opened its first office in Bulgaria last month and will add two more offices in 2007.

"We want to be at least in the top three companies in the sector in every country we operate," Arakas said.

He added that Arco Vara, whose main competitors in the Bulgarian market would be other international real estate brokerage firms, could achieve its target within five years.

Arco Vara has set the same target for Bulgaria's neighbour Romania, where the Estonian company will open an office by the end of 2006.

Located in the capital Bucharest, the office will offer brokerage, commercial, valuation and consultancy services.

The Bulgarian and Romanian offices add to Arco Vara Group's operations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.

The company has decided to enter the two Balkan states because of the two countries' forthcoming EU membership, Arakas said.

In another development, the UK real estate investment fund Bulgarian Land Development (BLD) said on September 20 it planned to build a 100-million euro holiday complex on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

The company has purchased several plots of land near the coastal town of Kavarna for a total of 3.3 million euro, BLD said in a statement filed with the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), operated by the London Stock Exchange.

"The company will now seek planning permission to create a 100 000 sq m holiday complex designed for the international holiday market with an estimated gross sale value of 100 million euro," the statement said.

Construction will be carried out in phases at a cost of 40 million euro.

BLD posted a 134 000 euro profit before and after tax since its establishment on March 17 to June 30, 2006, the firm reported on September 21.

"We are very pleased to report our first interim results today following what has been a good start of the year for the company," Christo Iliev, chief executive of BLD, said in a statement.

The group has been actively seeking further investment opportunities apart from its three ongoing projects, he added.

BLD is in negotiations to acquire other land for development and to buy flats off plan for re-sale. Further announcements will be made in due course, the company said.

"We look forward to investing additional funds into these potential projects and exploring further opportunities via our exclusive three year arrangement with the Bulgarian real estate agency Address Group, delivering increased shareholder value in the process," he said.

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