September 25 (SeeNews) - London-listed Bulgarian Land Development (BLD) posted a pre-tax loss of 513,000 British pounds ($1.0 million/732,000 euro) for the first half of the year due to high expenses.
The Bulgarian property developer had 839,000 pounds in expenses in the six-month period. BLD, which was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in March 2006, reported a 90,000 pounds pre-tax profit and 187,000 pounds in expenses in the March 17-June 30 period of last year.
"The first half of 2007 has seen us grow our property portfolio, increase our estimated portfolio value to an impressive 171 million pounds and raise an additional 15 million pounds to fund future investment opportunities, " BLD chief executive Christo Iliev said in a statement.
BLD raised 15 million pounds before expenses on AIM for new investments earlier this year. Last year it raised some 34.2 million euro in an initial public offering (IPO) on AIM.
BLD focuses on property in the holiday areas of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and ski resorts, and in the country's capital Sofia. Its development portfolio currently comprises nine projects, with an estimated value at completion of 171 million pounds.
"Performance in the second half has continued to be strong and the Board remains confident about the prospects for the Group for the rest of the year and into 2008," Iliev added.
(1 euro = 0.7007 British pounds)