The Irish Moritz Holdings, which discreetly entered the market at the end of last year, is developing a real estate project put at over 60 million euros in the Piata Victoriei area in Bucharest.

Moritz Group is thus joining the other Irish players already on the market, such as Ballymore and RI Investment Group.

"The first project will be a mix of offices and apartments in the city centre. It will have a development value in excess of 60 million euros depending on the planning we get on the site," Alex Brett, one of the shareholders of Moritz Holdings, which is among the most important developers on the Ireland and UK markets, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.

"We are interested in a broad range of projects including offices, residential and retail. We will look at all project sizes. We are also interested in other parts of Romania. In fact our group (Moritz Holdings) have already made a "dry investment" into a number of other cities in the country to develop retail shopping centres," Alex Brett explains.

The legal advisor of the Irish group on the Romanian market is Dragomir & Asociatii law firm, which ranks among the top 15 players in terms of turnover. Dragomir & Asociatii posted 2.2 million-euro turnover in 2005 with a team of ten lawyers and its portfolio comprises companies such as Lukoil, Timken, Telemobil, Vincon Vrancea and Electrica. Moritz Group, whose net assets are worth in excess of 500 million euros, has developed projects in Ireland, the UK and Hungary. It began researching the real estate market of Romania in September 2005. It set up its Romanian company, Victoria Ltd. and purchased about 8,000 square metres on Alexandru Ioan Cuza Street close to Piata Victoriei.

"Over the next 5 years, we will definitely invest in excess of 50 million euros. We would be interested in sharing this investment with some of the local banks who have