Bulgaria's Lion’s Head acquires BPD for 71 mln euro

With this acquisition AG Capital is expanding into the industrial properties market, becoming the second-largest owner of such assets in Bulgaria, Lion's Head said in a statement.

The purchase was financed with an investment by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, and financing from Sofia-based UniCredit Bulbank, part of Italy's UniCredit Group. In February, IFC said it was investing up to 150 million euro in Lion's Head to drive the company's expansion into green warehousing in Bulgaria and Romania.

"The acquisition of BPD is a significant achievement for the Lion’s Head team and marks the beginning of our ambitious plan for regional expansion of our portfolio in a new business sector and in new markets – Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. Our plan is to keep the BPD brand and further develop it together with the existing team," Lion’s Head managing director Tanya Kosseva-Boshova said.

As part of the deal, Lion’s Head has acquired BPD's three logistics parks located in Sofia, Varna and Ruse, with a total built area of 75,065 square metres. The company plans to construct additional assets of 28,000 square metres in Varna and Ruse, Lion’s Head director of logistics and industrial Vladimir Gurdjieff said in the statement.

Lion's Head Investments is a joint venture between Sofia-headquartered regional real estate group AG Capital and Old Mutual Property, part of South African financial conglomerate Old Mutual Limited. The firm currently owns and operates two office buildings in Sofia and three in Bucharest.

BPD, founded in 2004 and part of Bahamas-headquartered Tavistock Group, owns and manages properties with a total leasable area of over 60,000 square metres and development projects totalling 400,000 square metres, its website shows.

($ = 0.9369 euro)