In Brief
Eurobank Properties raises 329 million for realty Eurobank Properties Real Estate Investment Company, the property-investment arm of Greece’s second-biggest bank, raised 329 million euros in a rights offer to buy real estate at home and in eastern Europe. The Athens-based company sold a total of 36.6 million new shares at 9 euros apiece, almost all to existing shareholders, it said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. Eurobank Properties plans to use the funds and increase borrowing to finance «possible» real estate investments worth 757 million euros in Greece, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine, the company said. The bulk of the funds, 607 million euros, would be invested in Greece. Eurobank Properties REIC is the biggest real-estate investment trust on the Athens exchange, with a market value of 565 million euros. (Bloomberg) EIB signs agreement to lend up to 700 mln euros to Sofia SOFIA (Reuters) – The European Investment Bank signed an agreement yesterday to extend a loan of up to 700 million euros ($1.02 billion) to the Bulgarian government, the finance ministry said. The loan will be used to co-finance European Union-backed major infrastructure projects. Sofia could tap some 7.0 billion euros through 2013 to upgrade its potholed roads and improve its water and sewage networks, the ministry said in a statement. The loan will be extended in 20 tranches, each with a minimum amount of 30 million euros. Each tranche could be paid back between four and 25 years and have a grace period of seven years, the ministry said. Bulgaria’s gross foreign debt has been declining in the past years as the government has refrained from borrowing to partially compensate for rampant private lending. Bulgarian Property UK-based Windsorville Investments Ltd announced a 64 pence-per-share cash offer for commercial property firm Bulgarian Property Developments yesterday, which it said would be its final offer. Bulgarian Property’s board said on Dec. 6 it would not recommend a bid at that level, which values the company at 68.5 million pounds ($139.9 million). That came after Windsorville said on Dec. 5 that 64p per share would be the most it would bid for Bulgarian. (Reuters) FYROM development Israeli real estate investment firm Gazit-Globe Ltd said yesterday it plans to invest about 100 million euros ($147 million) to develop a commercial centre in Skopje. Gazit-Globe said in a statement it won a tender for a 42,000 square meter plot of land in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s capital with a bid of about 19 million euros. It added that the compound will comprise some 150,000 square meters. Gazit-Globe has rapidly been expanding its investments in Eastern Europe, India and Brazil. (Reuters) Nokia Siemens Serbia deal Nokia Siemens Networks said yesterday it had won an order for a third generation (3G) mobile radio network from Telenor’s Serbian subsidiary, but did not disclose the value of the deal. The 50-50 joint venture between Nokia and Siemens will build a 3G network across Serbia within four years and it will provide Telenor with a broad range of supplementary services, Nokia Siemens said. (Reuters)
