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Bulgaria's real estate investment trust ERG Capital 1 has sold the Commercial Center Oriflame in the capital Sofia to Bernard Investments after failing to strike a deal with Greece's Bluehouse Capital last year.

The price of the deal is EUR 1.63 M, down from the initial tag of EUR 2.3 M.

The sale makes it possible for ERG Capital 1, majority-owned by the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund (BAEF), to terminate its operations this year as planned upon its establishment seven years ago.

Bernard Investments is owned by French businessman Nicolas Rene Colonna Walewski, who came to Bulgaria last year. This is his third acquisition in the capital Sofia.

At the end of March, ERG Capital 1 shed its key asset in Bulgaria - a store of hypermarket chain Praktiker on Tsarigradsko Chausse for EUR 10 M.

The properties of Sofia-based ERG Capital 1 and ERG Capital 2 REITs were put on sale in a EUR 27 M deal in September last year. Greek investment fund Bluehouse Capital declared interest in the deal, but said it was willing to acquire only the retail properties.

That was the reason why the distribution center of the cosmetics company Oriflame, located near the interchange on the Tsarigradsko Chausse boulevard, was taken out of the package deal and put on sale separately.