Spain's property investment company Urbas and Bulgaria's AGP Group will invest 40 million euro in a residential project behind the capital's Central Railway Station, Spanish stock exchange regulator CNMV reported. The plot adjoins the plot of another Spanish investor, Riofisa.
More information is yet to be confirmed by representatives of AGP Group. The compound will occupy a 120 000 sq m plot, which has recently been acquired by the Spanish investor at a price of 60 million euro, and will house 3 500 apartments. The gross actual area of the complex will total 420 000 sq m.
The project will also feature a retail and administrative part. Bulgaria's United Bulgarian Bank and Corporate Commercial Bank will secure financing for the development, CNMV said.
It is the Spanish company's first large-scale investment, Dnevnik daily wrote.
Urbas was set up in 1944 and was listed on the Barcelona stock exchange in 1947. It started trading its shares on the Madrid bourse in 1989.
Urbas merged with two other Spanish companies at the beginning of 2007.
Urbas' net profit for 2006 stood at 10 million dollars (the merger is calculated into this figure), 70 per cent more than in 2005.
Urbas' investment in Bulgaria accords with the company's aim of expanding its activity into foreign markets.
AGP Group, Urbas partner in the project, has other investments in the Bulgarian market, some of them in real estate:
- construction of Antim Tower business centre in 2005 (behind Sofia's former telephone plant), sold to Austrian real estate investor Immoeast in mid-2006 along with adjacent land; West Business Park project is to be realised on the site;
- Petur Tankov, one of AGP Group's owners, participates in AGP Development, owned by Austria-based Norema; Norema, in turn, jointly with Galchev Engineering, takes part in Orbel Development company; the latter was chosen a strategic investor in ski zone Dobrinishte project;
- AGP Development has a stake in VAMO factory, which was recently sold through the stock exchange.
