Chinese investors will invest €270 million euros ($294 million) to construct Sofia, Bulgaria’s new cargo airport, and to develop a new luxury resort. While the specific investors have not been named, Sofia’s Mane Capital AD is involved in advising on the deal.
According to Ilian Scarlatov, a managing partner at Mane Capital, the coming Investments would go for new hotels, villas, a marina port and a casino in the Thracian Cliffs golf resort on the Black Sea, which Mane is already involved in. Scarlatov is quoted on Bloomberg, “I hope both transactions will be finalized in about three months and construction works may start by mid-year.”
For those unfamiliar, Thracian Cliffs is one of the most talked about and photographed golf resorts in Europe. Gary Player’s Bulgarian gem, the golf links are called, is a breathtaking course design achievement. Player, nicknamed the “Black Knight” for always wearing black, had this to say about the course:
“You will not find a golf course like this anywhere else on the planet.”
Bulgaria, which has boosted its efforts to draw new tourists recently, has made some progress in attracting Russian travelers diverted from Turkey in the wake of tensions there. According to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Bulgaria’s economy will expand more than 3 percent this year, after growing 2.9 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter, on the demand for oil and other exports.