Bulgaria's BenchMark in Talks With New Investor, Manager Says

By Elizabeth Konstantinova

Bloomberg agency

BenchMark Group, a Bulgarian investment broker, is in talks with an investor for its real estate arm and plans to sell some of its real estate assets, the company's executive manager said.

"We are in talks with a new partner and we are seeking the most advantageous solution for both sides," Vesselin Genchev, Genchev said in a phone interview in Sofia. "The new partner can enter the real estate fund either through a capital raise, a stake or asset acquisition." He declined to elaborate.

The Sofia-based BenchMark Fund Estates has completed all of its real-estate projects, including two office buildings in the capital city, Genchev said. The company seeks to sell or rent the buildings, he said. The price offer for its biggest building in Sofia is 28 million euros ( million), he said.

Bulgaria is struggling to recover from its first recession in more than a decade after a three-year lending boom stalled and foreign investment dried up during the global credit crisis. The real-estate industry, after driving growth in previous years, is the slowest to recover, according the statistics office. Bulgaria's economy grew 0.2 percent annual in the second quarter after contracting 5 percent in 2009.

The real estate company will change its name to Fund Estates and will cease to pay a 2.8 percent management fee to Benchmark Group. Instead, it will pay a smaller success fee, as all of the construction projects have been completed, Genchev said.

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