Equest Investments Balkans Limited, listed on the London Stock Exchange's alternative investment market, said it was considering offloading more assets from the portfolio of companies it owns in Bulgaria in order to boost liquidity.

Its priorities were the Technomarket electronics and household appliances retail chain and the 800 million euro SuperBorovets real estate development, in which Equest owned a 33 per cent stake.

Following recent leadership changes with the State General Reserve Fund of the Sultanate of Oman becoming a major share holder along with the Milano-based Kairos Investment Management Limited Fund, the fund has decided to alter its management.

Priorities for EIB would be the financing of major projects such as Borovets and Technomarket.

In September 2008 EIB said its intended to sell real estate company Pelican which owned the building of the former Serdika cinema in Sofia, as well as Evropa Palace, Iztok, Urvich and the former factory in Varna, Rodakar.

Furthermore, EIB said it contemplated to reduce or sell its share of 37.72 per cent in the insurance company Unika Bulgaria by 2010, as the company registered a revenue drop over 2008.

Additionally, EIB would reconsider future obligations and options for their investment in Auto Union, the company that distributed Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mazda, Opel, Chevrolet, as well as motorbikes Vespa, Piaggio and Gilera.

The deteriorating economic environment in the Bulgarian auto market, which registered a substantial drop in demand for new vehicles, was further exacerbated by the reluctance of financing through leasing, the EIB statement says.

EIB said it would concentrate its efforts on the realisation of its Borovets project, an investment worth 800 million euro.

The Borovets project was compartmentalised into six separate sub-developments which could be individually developed, lowering the development risk of such a large scale project. The Borovets development company would continue to add value to the project by preparing full architectural master designs and a detailed market study for current demand of residential apartments, whilst no construction works had been started and the project would remain debt free.

The investors would decide on further development commitments and timetables, following the results of the updated market study.