JOE LEWIS, the Cockney currency speculator who this month snatched a stake in Bear Stearns, one of Wall Street’s big five investment banks, is now taking a £70m bet on the Bulgarian property market.

The billionaire, who conducts his operations from the Bahamas, has emerged as the mystery backer behind Windsorville Investments, a vehicle that last week tabled a takeover offer, of “not less than 64p a share”, for AIM-listed Bulgarian Property Developments (BPD).

The property company was founded in May 2004 and admitted to AIM in January 2005, raising £4.2m after expenses. It later raised £32.9m in January 2006 via a share placing at 55p a share and £21m through an institutional placing in June 2007 at 64p a share.

The group focuses on commercial property development in five of Bulgaria’s major cities. The country has become increasingly popular with property investors. Sofia remains one of Europe’s cheapest office locations and is in line for further EU and private investment in infrastructure.

Lewis has also been sounding out bankers during the past few weeks in London about opportunities in the leisure sector.

The tycoon, who was born above a pub in Bow, east London, made his name when he teamed up with speculators including George Soros to bet on the pound crashing out of the European exchange-rate mechanism 15 years ago. Now he is best known for having taken investment interests in Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers football clubs. His total wealth is difficult to analyse but recent estimates put it at £2.8 billion.

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