GECINA SA, the property firm at the center of a dispute between its largest Spanish shareholders and French regulators, may start making acquisitions outside France, according to Chief Executive Officer Joaquin Rivero.

"We will continue to study opportunities in France and elsewhere," Rivero said at Gecina's annual shareholders' meeting in Paris yesterday. He said the company will sell more residential properties to fund acquisitions of offices in Milan, Barcelona, Madrid and, "in the medium to long term," London.

Rivero and Bautista Soler became Gecina's largest shareholders in December, after exchanging their stakes in Madrid-based Metrovacesa SA. The French markets regulator ruled that month that they'd acted together, crossing the threshold requiring them to make an offer for the rest of Gecina.

Rivero said he hopes a Paris court will in June uphold his appeal to overrule the French regulator's decision requiring the Spanish shareholders to make a buyout offer.

The Autorite des Marches Financiers on Monday dropped a similar demand that Sacyr Vallehermoso SA make a buyout offer for Eiffage SA after the Spanish firm sold its one-third stake in the French construction company, Bloomberg News said.

Among the options Rivero and Soler are exploring is lowering their combined stake in Gecina to below 30 percent to avoid the mandatory buyout offer.

Rivero said in an interview he would be selling about a 7-percent stake before the June appeals court ruling "no matter what the decision will be."

Elsewhere, Rivero said that rental revenue rose 7 percent in the first quarter, while the value of its mostly Paris-located properties was either little changed or slightly lower.