The secondary trade in the bonds of Agro Finance REIT (

) starts today. The issue amounts to 2.5 mln leva divided in 2,500 bonds with 1,000 euros par value each.

The bonds carry an annual interest of 7.5% with coupon payments due semi-annually. The loan is for a 36-month period starting March 25, 2008. The bonds mature on March 25, 2011 г.

Agro Finance is one of the three largest public REITs in Bulgaria, according to Desislava Yordanova, executive director of the fund. Agro Finance's land portfolio amounts to nearly 8,300 ha of land.

The REIT made investments for 19.942 mln leva in the period March 2007 to June 2008 at an average price of the land in the portfolio of 2403 leva per ha. The volume of investments of the REIT has risen by over 25% since the beginning of the year.

Trade in the stock of (

) also kicked off today. Venus aims to benefit from the publicity and the advantages of the public listing, according to Ioannis Bonakis, executive director of the company.

The par and issue value of Venus' shares is set at 1 leva apiece, while the the stock will be traded on BSE's Unofficial market.

The free-float of the company is expected to increase at least to 20% in the future. No deals have been sealed on the position of Venus so far.

Photo: Desislava Yordanova, executive director, Agro Finance REIT (right) and Ioannis Bonakis, executive director, Venus (Profit.bg)