25 May 2012

AIM looks east

05/12/2005

A £140 million fundraising for a Balkan property vehicle leads the flood of Eastern European ventures that have recently unveiled plans to float on AIM.

This is part of the stampede of 30 companies that during the last two weeks of November announced their intention to join the market. This suggests December will be a bumper month for new AIM admissions, rounding off a record year, during which nearly 500 companies have floated on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market.

Equest Balkan Properties is currently in the throes of raising up to £140 million for a vehicle to back commercial property, primarily in Bulgaria and Romania, both of which are looking to join the European Union in 2007.

The company, registered in the Isle of Man for tax purposes, will also consider investing in more volatile jurisdictions such as Albania and the successor states to Yugoslavia, such as Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia. Turkey is another possibility.

Equest, chaired by cross-bench peer Lord St John of Bletso, follows the wave of property concerns, such as Black Sea Property Fund and Orchid Developments, which floated in the summer looking to invest in residential and leisure buildings in Bulgaria.

Equest instead will look to back industrial, office and retail assets, principally near Sofia and Bucharest. The entity’s investment manager, Equest Capital Management, has already identified 14 possible projects, requiring £134 million of capital investment.
Petri Karjalainen, Equest’s managing partner, commented: ‘We should be fully invested within 12 months.’

The company, which boasts Bulgaria’s former foreign minister Solomon Passy as a director, intends to pay a dividend yield of 7.5 per cent. The placing, sponsored by Oriel Securities, will give the company an initial valuation of £190 million if fully subscribed.

A string of other Eastern European property ventures are also considering AIM fundraisings. Dutch company Engel East Europe wants to attract £30 million and Cypriot-registered XXI Century Investments Public, valued at £100 million, aims to back real estate in the Ukraine.

Companies: Black Sea Property Fund (The) , Orchid Developments

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