Carrefour Bulgaria, a joint venture company of French retailer Carrefour and Greek industrial, retail and commercial group Marinopoulos, has sold part of a multi-purpose centre project in Sofia to Greek-based private equity real estate group Assos Capital Limited.

Assos Capital bought the project of trade center 'Carrefour Tsarigradsko' for approximately €200 million  Carrefour  will sell the land and the constructing complex, but will stay in the project as tenant with their own hypermarket. The deal is one of the biggest with property for Bulgarian market.

The Carrefour mall, occupying a terrain of 54,000 sq m on Tsarigradsko Chausse Blvd., is still in the construction stage and is a part of a bigger project called 'Hermes Park'. Hermes Park is being developed by Carrefour Bulgaria and European Trade Centre. The two groups had initially intended to co-own the land and the building rights.

Hermes Park comprises a trade centre with a gross actual area of 240,000 sq m, 14,000 of which will be allocated to the mall. There will be office buildings adjacent to the establishment. This is the largest mall project currently being developed on the Balkans and is due to open in mid-2009. Carrefour does intend to invest in other big projects in Bulgaria, but the investment interest of the company will be directed towards the projects around the Central Railway Station.