UK currency speculator Joe Lewis, who in September 2007 bought a stake in one of Wall Street's big five investment banks Bear Stearns, is to invest 70 million pounds (100.52 million euro) in the Bulgarian property market.

Lewis, operating from the Bahamas, had emerges the backer behind Windsorville Investments, an investment vehicle which made a take-over offer for Bulgarian Property Developments (BPD), The Sunday Times said .

The group focused on commercial property development in five of Bulgaria’s major cities. Bulgaria had become increasingly popular with property investors, the newspaper said. Sofia remained one of Europe’s cheapest office locations and was in line for further EU and private investment in infrastructure.

Lewis made his name when he teamed up with speculators including George Soros to bet on the pound crashing out of the European exchange-rate mechanism 15 years ago. Now he was best known for having taken investment interests in Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers football clubs, The Sunday Times said. His total wealth was difficult to analyse but estimates had put it at 2.8 billion pounds (4.02 billion euro).