Another loudly advertised mega-project went into non-existence. It is about the “Bulgarian Las Vegas” – a huge vacation and entertainment complex near Sofia, promised more than 10 years ago by Asian investors. It was announced that Stephen Lo himself – the famous Hong Kong billionaire – is behind the venture.
The formal investor is the joint-stock company Capital Concept Limited (CCL). In 2014, the project company “Bulgaria Development Holdings” founded by him received the highest certificate for an investor – class A, from the Bulgarian government, and in 2017 CCL went to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange to raise capital.
In the meantime, the project went into a loop, the covid pandemic nailed it, and a few days ago the news came that the Financial Supervision Commission had removed the investor’s shares from the stock exchange due to improper documents. CCL’s latest financial report is for 2019.
In fact, at the end of November, the FSC already took a coercive administrative measure and ordered the final suspension of stock exchange trading in the shares of “Capital Concept Limited”, but the decision comes into force now because it was necessary to wait for the appeal period (there is no appeal).
The most
On a huge area between the villages of Ravno Pole and Musachevo, a smart city had to be built – a smart city with cutting-edge technologies, with the world’s largest indoor water park, a 5-star hotel, a casino giant, a huge mall, a concert hall, a beautiful park environment, etc. .n. The planned investment was for 1.5 billion – first leva, then euros. The official name of the project was “Holiday and entertainment complex “St. Sofia”. The Asians decided to join the nearby St. Sophia golf and spa complex and bought it.
Various companies entered the project company as shareholders, incl. offshore companies, and private individuals with Chinese names. According to “Capital”, the interest of Chinese citizens was also related to the possibility of obtaining the right of residence in our country under the scheme “visa or passport against bad investments”.
The project for a Bulgarian Las Vegas (or Macau) enjoyed support at the highest level. Numerous meetings were held with investors, incl. with the participation of the former Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and thanks for choosing Bulgaria for their investments.
But things did not take off. The companies behind the project began to accumulate loans and losses, entered into disputes and lawsuits, it came to the intervention of private bailiffs and asset sales – the golf course, for example, was bought by the famous businessman Miroslav Pechev, an importer of “Lavaca”.
Initially, the deadline for the construction of the miracle town was 2017. In 2019, surprisingly, the investors announced that they were changing the location and looking for a new site again in Sofia, but around the village of Katina. Then the covid pandemic came and everything stopped.
Who who
In 2014, the left-wing politician and businessman Alexander Tomov, a constant participant in the parliamentary elections, and at that time head of CSKA, joined the project. Tomov claimed that he personally convinced the Asians to come to us instead of Ireland. And that the billionaire Stephen Law is moving to Europe, parting ways with his beloved club “South China” and may be the new sponsor of CSKA.
In September 2020, Alexander Tomov dropped a “bombshell” with kompromat about Boyko Borisov, announcing that he had filed a report with the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev about the pressure exerted on the foreign investor. According to the report, at the end of 2013, Prime Minister Borisov had invited Stephen Law and his partner Josie Locke to the tennis club in Bankya, assured them that they could count on the government’s support and recommended that they involve Ivan Sazdov (known as a man from the closest circle of the GERB leader). Alexander Tomov claims that as a result of the pressure, the Asians were forced to sign a memorandum for the use of expensive (over 30 million euros) consulting services of Sazdov’s company. It was not understood why Tomov did not file a report immediately, but decided to sue Ivan Geshev years after the events he described. There is no evidence that the prosecutor’s office worked on the case.
Quoted by the whistleblower, Josie Locke, executive director of the project company, denied allegations of pressure. She announced that the project is in the “start of construction” phase thanks to Prime Minister Borissov and that the work has never stopped, only there has been “a certain delay due to the restrictions on business worldwide due to Covid 19”.
The company that did not build the Bulgarian “Las Vegas” was the titan of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of over BGN 16 billion. For comparison, the next big ones – such as “Chaika Pharma”, Sopharma, “Speedy”, etc., have market values of the order of BGN 1.4 billion – 800 million. It remains a mystery how the shares of a company were so highly valued, behind which are not real turnovers and profits, but intentions.
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2024-04-14 03:16:38
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