Bank Austria Creditanstalt has agreed to lend 81.125 million euro to Equest Balkan Properties.

The loan has been secured against City Center Sofia and a shopping mall in Romania.

Equest Balkan Properties, which invests in commercial, retail and industrial property in South Eastern Europe, mainly Bulgaria and Romania, said on August 30 that it intended using the five-year loan financing facility to develop new projects in South Eastern Europe.

“The debt’s financing are on normal market terms, denominated in euro and have five year terms,” Equest Balkan Properties said in a statement to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

City Center Sofia was acquired for about 94 million euro and the Romanian mall, in the city of Iasi, for about 34.5 million euro.

“We are pleased to announce the first debt financing packages for EBP which have been secured against the shopping malls held by the company. This debt financing has been achieved on terms which are within our funding objectives,” Equest Partners Limited managing partner and EBP investment adviser Petri Karjalainen said in the statement.

According to a report by SeeNews, EBP started trading its shares on the AIM in December and raised 140 million British pounds, or the equivalent of 207 million euro, to invest in or around major cities of Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro. It has so far committed 202 million euro in the region.

The fund also reported on its financial performance between early December 2005 and the end of June 2006. Net profit during the review period topped 4.2 million leva.

The company has invested or contracted to invest a total of 202 million euro during the review period.

EBP made 1.826 million euro in net rental and related income since its incorporation, while it spent 1.908 million euro on investment manager’s fees and about 700 000 euro on other administration fees and expenses in the same period, the company told AIM.

EBP also owns a hotel in Bulgaria, which it acquired for a total of 104 million euro. It owns two office buildings and a shopping mall in Romania, for which it has paid a combined price of more than 46 million euro. EBP also paid some 20 million euro for 70 per cent of Aurora Property Ventures, a property firm investing in Serbia.

Also on August 30, Avto Union, which is owned by Equest Investments Bulgaria, said that it was preparing to start selling the Maserati luxury car marque in Bulgaria from September. The car dealer is building a Maserati showroom in Sofia.

Earlier last month, EBP was reported to be holding to acquire a 40 per cent stake in electronic goods retailer Technomarket, Bulgaria’s largest consumer electronics good retail chain. The information was disclosed by K&K Electronics, the current owner of Technomarket.

In July, Equest completed the acquisition of the Familia supermarket chain.