Austria's biggest banking group Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria AG has approached the Bulgarian antitrust commission for permission to acquire a full stake in Miller Mall Varna, which owns Mall Varna in the eponymous northern Black Sea city.

This became clear by a note, published on the website of the state regulator - the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC).

RZB is the owner of Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria, which owns Raiffeisen Real Estate.

The Mall Varna was constructed by the Bulgarian Interservice Uzunovi Jsc and opened in the summer of 2008. Shortly after it was acquired by the Scottish Miller Developments, a subsidiary of Miller Group.

The price of EUR 120 M was record-high for the purchase of a commercial center in Bulgaria at the time. This was also the second largest real estate deal in the country.

Bulgaria ranks first in the European Union in the number of new shopping malls in the first half of the 2010, according to a report by Cushman and Wakefield consultancy.

While in most EU member-states the number of malls is on the slide due to the global economic crisis, their construction has accelerated in Bulgaria, marking a nearly 90% increase over one year.

A similar trend is also witnessed in other Balkan states - Bosnia&Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia - but the growth rate there is 5-10%.

The stock of contemporary shopping mall space in Bulgaria doubled in the first six months of 2010 with the opening of five new shopping malls, reaching 452,000 sqm in total, according to a recent realtor report.

Another five shopping mall projects are expected to open until the end of 2010, which will add 126,000 sqm of contemporary stock to the market, according to Colliers International's retail market overview for the first half of 2010 in Bulgaria.

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