Galaxy Investment Group is a leading investment company operating on the Bulgarian market for more than 22 years now. What are your current plans for strategic investments, and what are they influenced by?

The company has a diversified portfolio of real estates and plans its investments carefully. We have a successfully completed urban architecture project as well as residential projects that have won prestigious awards, so we shall continue with our investments in this field. We are planning a residential project in Sofia featuring modern, comfortable and secure living environment.  Also, we are planning the construction of some premium residential buildings in Plovdiv.

Our investments in industrial real estates are focused in the industrial centre of Bulgaria, which is located in the region of Plovdiv. We develop industrial parks and warehouses on key locations having also excellent infrastructure conditions.

With regards to our hotel business, our biggest success during the past 2 years was that we have overcome the crisis with a positive financial result, and that we managed to keep the best asset of every hotel – the professional long-standing team, which does not make any compromise on the quality of services. The result of this was the positioning of InterContinental Sofia as the best hotel among all InterContinental Hotels in Europe. Both InterContinental Sofia and Hilton Sofia were awarded with a number of international prizes.

What are the investment strategies of the company for the development of the hotel business necessary to meet both customer requirements and the new EU regulations?

In terms of investments, the results achieved and our consistent work gave us optimism during the crisis, not to suspend our plans for development, but to use time in the best possible way thus being able in the following months to start large-scope renovation of Hilton Sofia.     

The reconstruction of Hilton Sofia is one of the first for the brand after the Covid pandemic, which allows us to introduce a number of products in Hilton Hotels for the first time in Europe. These will include the innovative Arcadia conference halls, Oxbo and Regal dining concepts, and numerous new digital and green solutions.  Our goal is not just renovation, but expansion encompassing all elements for more effective business based on the new EU regulations, i.e. green transition and digital transformation. In this way our professional team, some members of which have been working in it since its opening will be supported in their work by the best technology solutions. 

We follow a similar line with regards to InterContinental Sofia, which successfully affirmed its positions and reputation as the most luxurious hotel in the capital, where we have a plan for a new modern restaurant concept.    

Your company invests, develops and manages projects in different branches of real estate, including hotels, residential and holiday complexes, office, business and industrial projects, locations and buildings. The hotel portfolio managed by Galaxy Investment Group is focused on premium assets positioned in a dynamic and fast developing market. To what do you relate their successful management?

The success of Galaxy in the hotel segment are due to the philosophy of the company for active partnership with global and local brands. Our hotels are managed by brands like Hilton, InterContinental, Barcelo Hotels and Resorts, while in the past years we have had experience with Radisson Blu and RIU as well. In these partnerships our company is not just the traditional passive investor. We have our own professional team, which is an active partner to the hotel chains in terms of communication and operation on the local market.  In the years this system of work demonstrated even to our at first sceptical partners that it can significantly give rise to financial results. 

The investment profile of the office asset portfolio of Galaxy Investment Group is concentrated on Class A office buildings. Have the new work trends of organizations related to the use of office space changed your plans with regards to investments in offices?

The way offices function really changed in the past year and a half. Employees of a large number of companies started to work from home thus ensuring uninterrupted business process, but recently we noticed a trend to resuming the traditional way of work. Of course, this leads to some new requirements to the building systems, including the need for more work space, and more employee recreation zones.   Despite the challenges we had to face, we managed to continue with our plans, and in a month we expect to finalize the second phase of Office Park Plovdiv, an A Class business building compliant with the latest international standards requirements. It features state-of-the-art high-tech installations that provide better quality of air, we created a functional and flexible work spaces with plenty of natural light and many comforts. In Office Park Plovdiv occupants will benefit from a healthy and safe environment, which is a priority for all of us.

What is your strategy for the future development of the company?

Galaxy Investment Group is a company with more than 20 years of experience in investment projects in real estates. Currently, we work on projects with a time-line of 1-3 years, 2-5 years, including even such of 15-20 years. These plans are based on current or prospective projects, as well as on entirely new areas meeting the forthcoming changes in the structure of EU economy.   

After a year of health and economic crisis, what bottom line results can you share with us?

The crisis hit the entire world, including our company, very severely and unexpectedly. The outcome after a year and a half is that we managed in quite a short time – from the very first month, to restructure our business in a sustainable manner, to keep our key staff, and not to allow a slump into lethargy, on the contrary, to continue working actively on the projects, so that at the end of the crisis to be able to congratulate ourselves with the good results.  Today, our locations continue in the course of this year and a half, to be the best in their class not only in Bulgaria, but in Europe too. This success is the result of exceptionally hard work of the team of Galaxy Investment Group, and many difficult but successful decisions.

InterContinental Sofia was awarded the Luxury Business Hotel Prize for Eastern Europe by World Luxury Hotel Awards, as well as The Leading Hotel of Bulgaria 2020 at World Travel Awards. Tell us more about these awards:

World Luxury Hotel Awards и World Travel Awards™ are the most prestigious awards in the travel industry and they are a great recognition for us. InterContinental Sofia won the award for Leading Hotel of Bulgaria, and Luxury Business Hotel for Eastern Europe for the second time. In addition to the real luxurious experience for your guests, we continuously strive to perfect our product. We are proud of what we have achieved, and that precisely InterContinental Sofia won the awards.
Zhivko Ivanov,
Asset Management Director
Galaxy Investment Group

Source: German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce