September 28 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Friday it plans to invest up to 15 million euro ($21.3 million) in a Bulgarian real estate investment trust focusing on industrial property, that is yet to be set up.
EBRD will invest in the real estate investment trust (REIT) the lower of 15 million euro, or 25% of the REIT’s total equity, the bank's proposed initial share of the company being 33.33%, it said in a statement.
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Other investors in the real estate company will include Bulgarian construction and property development company Sienit Holding and possibly another major financial investor, the statement said.
“We are still in talks [with a potential partner]. It is a Bulgarian company, but with foreign participation,” Sienit Holding project coordinator Vania Yordanova told SeeNews but declined to elaborate.
Yordanova said the REIT’s capital is due to reach 60 million euro after a number of capital increases.
The REIT is expected to develop a geographically diversified portfolio of projects, mainly outside the capital of Sofia, EBRD said.
The investment is pending final approval by EBRD's board on November 20.
Sienit and Bulgaria's largest lead and zinc smelter KTZM are developing an industrial zone near the country's second-biggest city of Plovdiv at an estimated cost of more than 70 million levs ($50.9 million/36 million euro).
Around 50 REITs operate in Bulgaria, where the real estate market is booming, fueled by foreign demand after the country’s entry in the European Union in January. REITs are required by law to list on the stock exchange in Sofia and distribute 90% of their profit as dividend.
($ = 0.7029 euro)