Alpha Developments, 100-percent owned by Alpha Finance Holding, has notified the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) on its plans to acquire a 75-percent stake of the real estate properties portfolio of Landmark. The procedure requires that the CPC examines the planned concentration of economic activity and comes up with a decision.

The stake will be sold by Bridgecorp, owned by Landmark's managers Richard Macdonald and Tanya Kosseva-Boshova, who in November 2007 acquired the portfolio for 201 mln. euros in the largest transaction the Bulgarian real estate market has seen so far. Bridgecorp's shareholders will keep a 25% stake in Landmark. Alpha Developments plans to expand its portfolio through the acquisition of assets in Bulgaria and in the Balkans.

“This is a key acquisition for Alpha Developments for two reasons – the company will be able to balance its portfolio of projects with real estate properties that generate revenue, while on the other hand the ongoing partnership with the sellers and the exchange of know-how will definitely establish the company as a real estate market leader in Bulgaria, according to Elitsa Panayotova, executive director of Alpha Developments.

“Our plans for the future are ambitious and we plan to acquire new office and commercial space, which will also be the main objective of our strategic partnership with Alpha Developments, Richard Macdonald said.

Landmark's portfolio comprises a total of 22 properties in Bulgaria and one property in Turkey with a gross leasable area of 92,300 m2 and 61,400 m2 building land. Landmark's assets include several office buildings in Sofia and Varna, a commercial park in Plovdiv, building land included in a golf project and a university building in Istanbul. Postbank, Nova TV, Deutsche Bank, DHL, IBM, CMS Cameron McKenna, bauMax, Deloitte, EVN, Uniqa and Alexandra Video are among the major tenants of the company.

Alpha Developments is a leader in the development and management of large-scale investment projects in the real estate sector. The company is building more than 500,000 m2 of residential, office and commercial space and manages more than 300,000 m2 of office space. Panorama City in Varna and Alpha Park in Sofia are among its largest projects.

Alpha Developments is part of Alpha Finance Holding, which has a payroll of nearly 3,500. The group is active in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe and manages assets for over 1 bln. euro.

Richard Macdonald has more than 10 years of experience in the acquisition and management of a portfolio of real estate properties in the UK. Tanya Kosseva-Boshova was a partner of Colliers International Southeastern Europe for eight years, during four of which she served as a manager of the Bulgarian office of the company.