Romania's biggest household appliances retailer Altex plans to invest 40 million euro in its expansion to Bulgaria, Altex chairman and CEO Dan Ostahie said, as quoted by Bucharest daily Business Standard on May 22.

"We cannot embark on an opportunist strategy, which is why the expansion will take some time. Our plan is to use 10 million of our own funds in 2009/10, to which we will add bank loans that would make up 75 per cent of the total costs," Ostahie said.

No deal on the loan was sealed yet, but the company would seek a bank that has operations in both countries, he added.

Altex has looked to expand south of the Danube since 2005, but had to shelve its plans and consolidate its market share domestically. Although at one point the retailer had considered the acquisition of a Bulgarian peer, it would now focus on organic growth, according toOstahie.

Despite the fact that the Romanian market was more attractive, Bulgaria's bigger cities, such as Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna, offered enticing opportunities for business,Ostahie said, as quoted by Business Standard. He forecast that Bulgaria's household and IT&C goods market would grow by 50 per cent over the next three years, to reach 1.5 billion euro in 2010.

The retailer would step on the Bulgarian market with both its flagship Media Galaxy brand, but also the smaller stores under theAltex brand. The company currently has 15 Media Galaxy and 73 Altex stores in Romania.

Altex reported revenues of 77 million euro in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 46 per cent on an annual basis. It targets sales of 430 million euro for this year, compared with 317 million euro in 2007, when it posted an annual increase of 50 per cent.