Tsentralen Universalen Magazin AD (Bulgaria)

TZUM, Bulgaria's most famous luxury department store, is located at the heart of the capital Sofia.
It offers an assortment of luxury fashion apparel, shoes, accessories, jewellery, cosmetics and gifts.
The four-storey building, which was opened in 1957, also houses a business centre.
In March 1998, British-registered Regent Pacific Group acquired a 75% stake in TZUM for DEM 30 million.
According to the contract, the buyer paid half of the price in cash and half in Bulgarian bad loan bonds (ZUNKs).
The buyer, later transformed into iRegent Group, also pledged to invest DEM 9.5 million in the department store over the next five years.
A further 20% stake in TZUM was offered to employees in non-voting shares and 5.0% were used to compensate claims by previous land-owners.
In October 2004, Bulgarian Black Sea resort operator Slanchev Den bought 99.5% of the shopping and office centre for some EUR 20 million.
In July 2006, the resort operator sold its stake in TZUM to local firm Atlas Invest for EUR 20 million.
In fact, the latest transaction represented a transfer of TZUM equity by Slanchev Den owner Georgi Gergov to his two sons.