Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp., which plans to add 900 cafes outside the U.S. by September, will open its first outlets in Bulgaria and Portugal next year to expand in Europe.

The world's largest chain of coffee shops said today it will add a store in Bulgaria's capital Sofia in 2008 and one in Portugal's capital Lisbon ``sometime next year.''

Starbucks' growth internationally comes as analysts including Larry Miller at RBC Capital Markets have questioned whether it expanded too fast in the U.S. and saturated the market. The Seattle-based company cut profit and sales forecasts in November as U.S. customer visits fell for the first time following a price increase of 9 cents a cup.

``They're in the early stages of international growth,'' the Atlanta-based Miller said. ``It's an overlooked part of the business by most investors.''

The stores in Bulgaria and Portugal will be part of an existing partnership between Starbucks and two local operators, Athens-based Marinopoulos Group and Madrid-based Grupo VIPS. The expansion is part of a plan to develop ``business clusters'' within Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the company said in a statement.

Starbucks opened its first international location in Tokyo in 1996.

As of the end of September, the company had 4,327 international stores in 42 countries outside the U.S., representing about a third of locations worldwide.

The coffee chain added 783 international stores in the 12 months through September.

Starbucks fell 57 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $20.03 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock reached its lowest since May 2004. The shares plunged 44 percent this year, heading for their steepest annual decline since 1992.

To contact the reporter on this story: Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at dstanford2@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: December 19, 2007 16:36 EST