lt;P gt;The largest British clothing retailer Marks amp;amp;Spencer Group Plc set up a joint venture with the Greek Marinopoulos Group to expand its business in Eastern Europe, Bloomberg reported on February 29. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;The British company acquired 50 per cent of Marks amp;amp;Spencer Marinopoulos BV, which manages 38 outlets under franchise in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Switzerland, for amp;nbsp; 50 million euro. Marks amp;amp;Spencer plans to open 50 new outlets on the Balkans in the coming years, Bloomberg said. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;The acquisition is a part of Marks amp;amp;Spencers expansion and investment strategy, which includes boosting the share of international revenues to between 15 and 20 per cent over the next five years. lt;P gt;
Polands real estate developer Globe Trade Center GTC, which has mall projects in the Bulgarian cities of Stara Zagora, Varna and Bourgas, as well as several plots in Sofia, has announced plans to invest about 1.5 billion euro in new projects across CEE Central and East Europe during 2008 and 2009, investor.bg reported. The companys activity will be directed primarily towards acquiring land and developing new
John Cutts, the founder and chief executive of commercial property developer Parkridge, is continuing his expansion into East Europe, the Financial Times reports.Although the entrepreneurs initial plans envisaged expansion to Poland, due to its key location, he also saw good opportunities for investment in retail compounds in Bulgaria and Ukraine. Seven retail centres have been erected in Warsaw since Parkridges accession to the Polish market, which means that it might be oversupplied soon, the developer said. He added that the Czech Republic used to offer good potential, but it faced a similar problem of reaching its capacity for absorbing commercial establishments.
The Greek group Fourlis has signed a 12.081 million euro preliminary contract for the purchase of a plot in Sofia where it plans to develop the first IKEA hypermarket in the country, investor.bg reported. Negotiations for the land started in November last year, Fourlis officials said, but they refused to give details about its size and location.
Investment Corporation of Dubai offered 3 billion euro for Inmobiliaria Colonial, the Spanish developer that owns of Riofisa, which is developing two projects in Bulgaria worth more than 450 million euro, Bloomberg reported on February 28.