Equest Balkan Properties sold its City Center Sofia shopping centre to US real estate investment management firm Heitman for 101.5 million euro, Dow Jones news agency reported. The deal was announced on September 19 and should be wrapped up in November.

Equest bought the shopping mall off-plan in 2006. It paid 94 million euro to the seller, Stroitown, a company linked to Roumen Gaitanski, the former owner of Sofia's refuse collection companies.

In December 2007, the mall was evaluated at 99.5 million euro, Equest's official statement reads.

The new owner will pay out a 64 million euro mortgage and a further 37.5 million euro in cash when the deal is finalised. The proceeds will finance Equest's other projects and repaying bank loans.

Heitman European Property Partners III will buy Dutch-registered firm Lerma, which holds 100 per cent in Auriga, the Bulgarian company that owns City Center Sofia.

Sources told Dnevnik daily that the US company is eyeing other projects in Bulgaria as well. One of them is Mall Stara Zagora in the central town of the same name. The shopping centre should open doors next week.

Heitman is headquartered in Chicago and operates in the US and Europe. It has a portfolio worth $22.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Equest said it would pour 45 million euro into the construction of a retail park in neighbouring Romania. The development will rise on an eight ha land plot over the next 18 months. Equest inaugurated its first Romanian retail park, Vitanis, earlier in September. The project was acquired at the end of 2006 and expanded through a 30 million euro investment, which took the total to 60 million euro. It has accommodated outlets of French retailer Carrefour, Bulgarian electronics retailer Technomarket, also owned by Equest and German do-it-yourself retailer Praktiker.

Source: dnevnik.bg