Heitman, a Chicago-based investment company, settled its fourth fund for European real estate investment with 380 million euro, a substantial part of which could make its way through to Bulgaria.

A company spokesman said that Heitman European Property Partners IV would encroach upon "different sectors from the real estate market, including trade, industrial, commercial, logistical and administrative parcels of land, but would not consider investing in hotels", weekly Stroitelstvo Gradut reported in its March 9 2009 edition.

Heitman manages private capital, which it then reinvests into property and related financial instruments. It is one of the most prominent, active and experienced investors in Central and Eastern Europe.

As opposed to previous Heitman schemes, however, the IV fund – or fourth phase – will encompass a significantly larger geographical sphere – an indicative sign that in the face of economic crisis, the company has detected a potential lucrative financial opportunity when prices are slumping all around.

"The fund will rely on dependable partners to process and complete the purchase of property, to augment the value of its newly acquired stocks, and to initiate successful new projects," the Heitman report said, as quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut.

Under Heitman's meticulous surveillance, the markets in CEE are becoming increasingly more significant, an opposition to the company's previous interest in solely the West.

"We posses a long-term investment period of three years, which is ample time for us to be careful, considerate and proceed with the best possible alternatives," Gordon Black, executive director of Heitman, said.

This is the fourth successive fund of the company. Heitman European Property Partners III invested in projects in Slovakia and Bulgaria – in particular, office buildings in Sofia amounting to 6600 sq m – as well as in some other countries.

Its single largest acquisition on the Bulgarian market last year was City Center Sofia, which eventually transpired as one of the few assertive and financially successful deals on the Sofia market for 2008. Upon the finalisation of that deal, Frank Hildvain, Heitman's vice-president, said that Bulgaria would be subjected to further investment from the company, due the favourable conditions that had revealed themselves in light of the economic crisis.