Alfa Developments buys 23 properties from Landmark portfolio
18 March 2008
Alfa Developments, the real estate division of Alfa Finance Holding, said it will acquire for an undisclosed amount 75% of the property portfolio of real estate investment company Landmark. The portfolio, comprising 23 properties, was transacted in late 2007 in a management buyout for EUR 210 million.
Alfa Developments said the pricing mechanism for the deal will take into account the wider market trend for falling property yields. It will likely be slightly higher than the price achieved in the late-2007 buyout.
The properties are sold by Bridgecorp, incorporated by Landmark managers Tania Koseva-Boshova and Richard McDonald. The deal involves 22 Bridgecorp properties in Bulgaria - including office buildings in Sofia and Varna, a retail park in Plovdiv and a section of a golf resort near Kavarna, and one in Turkey.
”This acquisition is key for Alfa Developments for two reasons: it enables the company to balance its basket of income-earning real estate projects while the ongoing partnership with the seller and the exchange of know-how will cement our position as a leader on the domestic property market,” said Elitsa Panayotova, executive director of Alfa Developments.
The Bridgecorp team will remain in charge of the management of the transacted properties. “We will continue to develop the projects and increase their number,” said Koseva-Boshova.
The two Landmark deals are among the biggest ever concluded on the Bulgarian property market. In terms of value, they could be rivalled only by the sale of Business Park Sofia and the Carrefour mall development, each with an estimated tag of around EUR 180 million.
Alfa Finance Holding owns a majority stake in over 60 Bulgarian companies active in financial services, real estate management, mining and logistics.