The Bulgarian Real Estate Fund (BREF), a real estate investment trust with several major foreign shareholders, has bought a second store from the Mr Bricolage chain.
After buying a Mr Bricolage store in Varna in August this year, BREF signed a deal on November 15 to acquire the Mr Bricolage store in Sofias Tsarigradsko Chausse.
The purchase prices of the two stores adds up to 10 million euro. The total built-up area of the two stores is 12 985 sq m - 5375 sq m in Sofia and 7610 sq m in Varna.
According to a BREF statement, immediately after the sale, the Doverie Brico company agreed to lease back both stores for a total price of 90 147 euro a month for a 10-year term.
BREF said that in this way, it was generating yield and implementing the programme set out in its long-term management strategy.
BREF is the largest special purpose vehicle of its kind in Bulgaria, with capital of more than 60 million leva. It has more than 350 shareholders. The majors include international financial institutions such as Hansapank Estonia, Danske Bank Investment Funds, Trigon Capital, Capital Invest (Austria), Charlemagne Capital (UK), as well as many individual investors. The Bulgarian institutional investors include the pension funds of ING, DSK, Allianz and many banks including First Investment Bank, Bulgarian Post Bank, Central Cooperative Bank, Unionbank.
BREF said that it had a rich real estate portfolio and projects in the process of development, including business, commercial and industrial projects; an ongoing project to build a luxury eight-storey business office building in G.M. Dimitrov Boulevard with a total built-up area of about 13 000 sq m; a luxury business office building and a shopping centre project next to the southern section of the ring road close to Business Park Sofia. The implementation phase of this has started. The project envisages two ground shopping floors at the level of the ring road and six office floors above with a total built-up area of about 32 500 sq m. Other projects include a logistics centre near Sofia Airport. BREF owns the plot, which has a total area of 14 552 sq m. Currently, the future warehouse premises are being designed.
Other BREF projects include a holiday village south of the Black Sea city of Bourgas near to the village of Lozenets. Its total built-up area is about 18 000 sq m. The site is on a consolidated plot of land of a total area of 28 700 sq m owned by BREF.
There is also an agricultural land project. BREF has acquired more than 3100 ha of farmland primarily in northern Bulgaria, including Dobrich, Varna, Razgrad, Silistra, Pleven, Shoumen, Veliko Turnovo, Vratsa and Lovech. The company's investment programme envisages the purchase of a total of about 4000ha of farmland by the end of this year. Currently, the lease of the land purchased in the course of the year is under way.
