ECM eyes EUR 800 mln rise in real estate portfolio

...the value of its portfolio by 800 million euros ($1.10 billion) through the year-end.

"We see the gross development value of our tangible project pipeline increasing by approximately 800 million euros by year-end 2007," said ECM Chairman Milan Janku. "We believe these are realistic and extremely encouraging figures."

Besides the Czech Republic and Russia where it is already present, the Prague-based real-estate developer singled out Poland, Romania and Ukraine as the most promising markets. It said it was also considering entering China as an investor.

ECM, which went public via a share offering on the Prague bourse in December 2006, had 17 development and three investment projects with a total floor space of 300,000 square metres in its porfolio at end-March.