Investors' concerns about saturation of the office space market in Sofia are holding back construction activity and no new office projects were commissioned in the third quarter. This is shown by data from the commercial property consultancy Cushman&Wakefield | Forton. The areas under construction also remained unchanged - just over 200 thousand sq m. The construction of a significant part of this volume is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2027. Bulgaria Office Center, a site with 5,500 sq m of office space, was acquired by Borika AD for 11.5 million euros. Since the beginning of the year, at least six office buildings with a total gross lettable area of ​​50 thousand sq m. have changed owners. The value of these investments, mainly with local capital, amounts to 150 million euros. In the coming months, the market may witness new deals, as investor interest remains high, the consultancy notes. Leasing activity continued to rise in the third quarter, with gross leased area reaching 61,000 sq m - up 8% year-on-year. IT companies, led by giant SAP, were the most active, accounting for nearly 57% of all leased space. Companies from sectors such as administrative and support activities (including outsourcing), industry and professional services were also active in the period. Together, they contracted about 15,000 sq m, or 25% of the leased space. The remaining 11,000 sq m, or 18%, were taken by wholesalers and retailers, finance and other industries. In terms of location, office space along major thoroughfares was most in demand during the quarter. About 40 thousand sq m, or 66% of the leased area, was in buildings on Tsarigradsko Shosse, Cherni Vrah, Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgaria and Todor Aleksandrov boulevards. The peripheral areas (Ring Road, Al. Malinov Blvd. and the airport) took second place with 13,600 sq m, followed by the wider center and the central administrative zone with a total of 7,140 sq m. At the end of September, class A and B office space in Sofia amounted to 2.3 million sq m. The free area is nearly 290 thousand sq m, or 12.4% of the total volume. The least free space - 14 thousand sq m, was reported in the central administrative zone, where unoccupied areas are below 6%. The largest number of vacant offices are along the main roads - 148 thousand sq m (13.1%), and in peripheral areas the vacant areas are 106 thousand sq m (14.2%).

Plot of 111 decares with a newly built 4.9 MWp photovoltaic plant (56 decares) and an adjacent free plot (55 decares) with development potential at a key location in the city of Blagoevgrad

Lukoil said it had received an offer from commodities trader Gunvor Group, days after it said it would sell its international business. The Russian company has accepted the offer and has pledged not to negotiate with other potential buyers. Gunvor Group is a multinational energy trading company registered in Cyprus. The company's main sales office is in Geneva. The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump dealt a major economic blow to Russia on October 22, imposing sanctions on the country's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. The sale would take place at the Vienna level, where Lukoil International, which holds all assets in Europe, is based, and a possible deal would sever ties with its sanctioned parent, PJSC Lukoil. It is also unclear whether the deal will be recognized by the EU and the US as an acceptable solution. And whether there will be a postponement of sanctions while such a procedure is underway. In this development of events, there will be no sale at the Bulgarian level. The permits will be issued by a Vienna or pan-European regulator. Lukoil International is an internationally operating company with dozens of subsidiaries. In Bulgaria, the Russian PJSC Lukoil is present with four main companies - the refinery Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, the wholesale and retail trader Lukoil Bulgaria, the aviation fuel trader Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria and Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker, which deals with marine fuel. The latter two are directly owned by Lukoil International. In Lukoil Neftochim Burgas and Lukoil Bulgaria, the Swiss trader Litasco directly exercises control, and Lukoil International indirectly, with Litasco being further down in the European pyramid of Lukoil companies. The Burgas refinery received 6.6 million tons of oil in 2024. The import of the main finished products - diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and propane-butane, is about 1 million tons, and their consumption in the country is nearly 4 million tons (the refinery also exports). That is, imports are only a quarter of the needs of the local market. The largest consumption in the country is diesel - 2.6 million tons. Next is gasoline - 626 thousand tons, and in the last year, both products have seen an increase in consumption here. The import of aviation fuel is currently almost negligible. That is, the supply of aviation is almost 100% with fuel from the refinery, with "Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria" dealing with supplies to airports and aviation. Next comes propane-butane. It comes to a greater extent as an import of a finished product, and not from production in Burgas. A slight decline in consumption is also registered with it. The refinery is the largest company in Bulgaria based on revenue - 9.1 billion leva with a loss of 213 million leva for 2024. The purchase of oil is carried out by Litasco. The refinery "Lukoil Neftochim Burgas" at the end of 2024 has a credit line agreement with its majority shareholder Litasco with an approved limit of 500 million euros, of which 366 million euros have been utilized. In terms of sales, 88% of "Lukoil Neftochim Burgas" sales are to "Lukoil Bulgaria", "Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria", Litasco, Switzerland, and Litasco Benelux. The wholesaler and retailer "Lukoil Bulgaria" supplies fuels to almost all gas station chains, wholesalers and warehouses. It has a chain of 220 sites with a little over 6% market share based on the number of sites and 20% market share based on sales. In the Balkans, the most attractive asset is the Lukoil Neftochim Burgas refinery with a capacity of about 7 million tons of crude oil per year. The Petrotel refinery in Ploiești in Romania is smaller - with 2.4 million tons, and is currently under renovation. Fuel from Burgas also supplies the Lukoil gas station chain in other countries in the Balkans, where the group has about 750 sites. In addition to 220 in Bulgaria, there are 320 in Romania, 112 in Serbia, 45 in Croatia, 10 in Montenegro, and 40 in North Macedonia. The chain in Moldova is also added to these - 102. The group owns four refineries in Russia (in Perm, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Ukhta) and two refineries in Europe (in Romania and Bulgaria), as well as a 45% share in a refinery in the Netherlands with a total capacity of 65 million tons per year, with those in Russia representing 75% of the total production capacity. The group's gas stations at the end of 2024 are 5,336 in 20 countries. Of these, 2,880 are located in Russia and 2,456 outside the Russian Federation, with 20% of sales occurring in Europe based on millions of tons. Globally, Lukoil is also involved in projects in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Congo.

The satellite service provider - the Bulgarian space company EnduroSat - in the summer of 2024 purchased the former Alpha Bank headquarters on Tsarigradsko Shose in order to build the largest space center on the Balkan Peninsula. In the first half of this year, Raycho Raychev's project attracted a total of $43 million. The lead investor in the deal was the American venture capital fund, which is also an investor in Space X - Founders Fund, in which the Bulgarian Delyan Asparuhov, founder of the space company Varda, is a partner. Now EnduroSat is announcing not only a new round of $104 million, but also the opening of its long-awaited space center on Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd. in Sofia. A number of new investors are now joining the company - the round is led by the American venture capital fund Riot Ventures, and the Alphabet fund Google Ventures, the European Innovation Council Fund and the Los Angeles-based Shrug Capital fund are also participating. In 2018, EnduroSat launched its first satellite, and today it works with over 350 international customers and over 60 internally developed satellites in orbit, with a team of 260 engineers and technologists in its six offices in Europe and the US. EnduroSat's new space center is 17.5 thousand square meters in size, or 6.5 times larger than the business's current one, and it plans to increase its capacity by the same amount. EnduroSat's new satellites are significantly larger than the current ones - they weigh between 200 kg and 500 kg and belong to SpaceX's Starlink class of satellites. If an average gigabyte of data from space costs a customer between 3 and 5 thousand dollars, EnduroSat's current systems bring this price down to 175 euros per gigabyte.

The National Revenue Agency is selling the bus station in Pernik. The property is privately owned and is located on an area of ​​6809 sq. m. The auction is a secret bidding, with the initially announced price being over 3 million leva. The property is located in an urbanized area, right next to the city's railway station. Two buildings have been built on the terrain. One of them is for the needs of motor transport, and the other is for production and storage purposes. The property announced at the auction is encumbered - with a mortgage from 2018.

The project of the Mondelēz International chocolate factory in Svoge, called Svoge Digital Factory 2025, includes the development of digital infrastructure and the implementation of four main IoT (Internet of Things) applications on four production lines and will cover over 80% of the production capacity. The investment is 2.5 million leva, its implementation lasts for a year and a half and will be completed at the end of 2025. Svoge Digital Factory 2025 will allow data to be collected and processed in the same way from nearly 50 different manufacturers and equipment from different generations. In the last 10 years, investments of over 150 million leva have been made in the factory, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. Over 400 people are employed, over 170 products are produced here on more than 10 technological lines. The factory itself creates 80% of the necessary chocolate mass, which guarantees a closed loop of work processes. In Svoge there are specific productions without an equivalent in another Mondelēz location. The factory can produce more complex products - with cream, additives, peanuts, fillings. Products for the large Milka portfolio are produced here, as well as a number of local brands for foreign markets, including Poiana for Romania, Alpen Gold for Poland, Cadbury for the UK, Pavlidis for Greece, Karuna for Lithuania and Figaro for Slovakia. Only here does Mondelēz International produce the "Milka Peanut Caramel" chocolate, for example, which is sold in 27 countries in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia. This is where the Bulgarian brands originate - the "Svoge" and "Mlechen" chocolates, the "Seasons" and Suchard candies, and the "Moreni" wafers. About 30% of the production is intended for the Bulgarian market. The rest is exported to more than 25 markets around the world. Here is the world's fastest chocolate packaging line, in which 22 million leva have been invested. It produces up to 6,600 candies per minute (compared to 3,136 on the old line). In addition to speed, the new candy packaging technology reduces packaging by 20% and allows for easier recycling, optimizes storage and preservation of the taste of the products. Today, Mondelēz's business in Bulgaria is managed by six different companies, and in Southeast Europe it covers 12 markets in the region. In 2021, Mondelēz International bought the Greek croissant and baked roll manufacturer Chipita for about $2 billion. After the merger with Chipita, the companies in the Southeast Europe region have a total turnover of over $1 billion per year and more than 4,000 employees.

The Municipal Council (MC) in Dupnitsa voted to declare ViK Dupnitsa in liquidation. The local water company joined the operator "Kyustendilska Voda", which currently provides water supply and sewage services on the territory of the Dupnitsa municipality, and the Dupnitsa company was left without the opportunity to carry out commercial activities. The company in Dupnitsa does not have its own employees and is in a difficult financial situation. The Municipal Council allocated 20 thousand leva from the municipal budget to be used for the liquidation of the company. The funds will be used to pay about 18-19 thousand leva for delayed salaries to the company.

Sofia will have its first energy community - a pilot project initiated by the Vitosha region, jointly with the Sofia Municipality, to build a solar installation on the roof of the 2nd Sofia University "Acad. Emilian Stanev". The photovoltaic plant will have a capacity of 75 kW and will cover about 40% of the school's electricity needs. The expected investment allowance for the implementation of the project is 51% for 10 years of operation at a fixed electricity sales price of 23 cents/kWh with VAT. The initiative will be implemented using a group financing model. The total budget is 90,000 leva, and each citizen of Sofia who meets the conditions will be able to invest between 500 and 5,000 leva. The amount is expected to be collected within about two months, with the investment project itself being implemented after another four. In other words, the installation is expected to be operational by spring 2026. Currently, two more similar energy communities are planned in the Vitosha region. A total of 22 municipal buildings were examined for the purposes of the project, and the analysis showed that the 2nd "Emiliyan Stanev" Secondary School is the most suitable - both in terms of energy consumption and the possibility of technical implementation of the project. The plant is planned to be 75 kWp, with 40% of the energy produced covering part of the school's needs. Its electricity bills vary between 300-1000 leva depending on the season. The project will last 10 years, after which the ownership of the plant will become municipal, passing to the school. Thus, the electricity will continue to power the school and other municipal sites - one of them is the nearby building of the Vitosha Municipality. The basis of the energy communities is the idea that citizens can be active participants in the energy transition, and not just consumers. In Gabrovo, the first large energy community with a capacity of nearly 100 kWp was announced, and in Burgas, the municipality built a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 420 kWp on the roof of the Slaveykov Swimming Sports Complex. According to the plan, the Sofia Municipality will build 29 more energy communities by 2030.

At its meeting on 28.10.2025, the FSC decided: 1. To register "Bravo Home" REIT as a public company in the register of public companies and other issuers of securities, and the issued issue of shares for the purpose of trading on a regulated market. The issue is in the amount of 13 ordinary, registered, dematerialized, freely transferable shares with voting rights, with a nominal value of BGN 50,000 each, with ISIN code BG1100014254. 2. To deregister an issue of bonds issued by "SLS Holding" AD, Sofia, from the register of public companies and other issuers of securities. The issue is in the amount of EUR 2,000,000, distributed in 2,000 (two thousand) ordinary, registered, dematerialized, interest-bearing, freely transferable, non-convertible, unsecured bonds, with a nominal value of EUR 1,000 each, with ISIN code BG2100004105. 3. Terminates, at the request of the applicant, the procedure for issuing an approval for a member of the board of directors of the investment intermediary Global Funds Exchange AD. 5. Sends a letter to the management company (MC) "Karoll Capital Management" EAD, Sofia, confirming the completeness of the application for issuance of a permit for transformation of the contractual fund "Advance Emerging Europe Opportunities" through merger into Class A of Karoll - Advance Emerging Europe Opportunities, a sub-fund of Karoll SICAV, managed by the management company Waystone Management Company (Lux) S.A. and sends a copy of the documents submitted in the proceedings to the competent authority of Luxembourg (CSSF).

The European Central Bank will continue to lay the groundwork for a digital euro after the current preparation phase ends this month, with a launch planned for four years. Officials will decide to continue with the preparatory work at a meeting this week in Florence, Italy, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported. They aim to issue the currency in 2029, provided the legal framework is in place, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing confidential discussions. Central bankers began the project’s two-year preparatory phase in 2023, hoping that the European Union would adopt the rules needed to introduce the digital equivalent of banknotes and coins by then. National governments and the European Parliament, however, have yet to reach an agreement. The biggest obstacle comes from the European People’s Party, where some lawmakers have preferred to look to the private sector for an alternative to the ECB’s digital solution. But pressure to break the deadlock is mounting as politicians complain about the overreliance on U.S. firms like Visa, Mastercard and PayPal for retail payments. Concerns that dollar-backed stablecoins backed by U.S. President Donald Trump could gain traction in Europe have added fresh impetus to the debate. ECB President Christine Lagarde and others have been pushing for faster progress to strengthen strategic autonomy at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions. That will be reflected in Thursday’s announcement, the sources said. The potential launch date was first announced publicly by ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, who told a Bloomberg event in September that “mid-2029 could be a fair estimate.” The current preparation phase follows a two-year study period.

The federal government shutdown has already cost the U.S. economy $18 billion through Oct. 29, the 29th day of shutdown, a cost that will swell in the coming weeks, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The nonpartisan organization stressed that much of the impact will be temporary, with a short-term boost to economic growth in the first quarter of next year. But experts estimate that between $7 billion and $14 billion in damage to gross domestic product will not be recovered, depending on the length of the shutdown. The CBO is looking at three scenarios. The first, which has already happened, is that GDP will be at least one percentage point lower in the fourth quarter due to the shutdown, according to a report the agency released Oct. 29. The second scenario, after the shutdown reaches its six-week mark, or mid-November, is projected to reduce real GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter—a $28 billion reduction. If it extends to eight weeks, as in the third scenario, around Thanksgiving, the hit to real GDP would increase to two percentage points, or $39 billion. The CBO report attributes the decline in economic activity to multiple factors, including fewer services provided by federal employees, lower private-sector production, and lower federal spending on goods, services, and food assistance. The CBO estimates that 650,000 federal employees are furloughed due to the partial shutdown. If all are counted as temporarily unemployed, the agency estimates that the unemployment rate would rise by 0.4 percentage points in October—the largest one-month jump in its rate since the pandemic began. The partial government shutdown is far from over, with Senate Republicans urging Democrats to support a temporary measure to fund federal agencies through Nov. 21. Democrats have called for negotiations to extend expiring federal tax breaks to help Americans buy private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. CBO Director Philip Sweigle said the impact of the shutdown on the economy is uncertain and depends on decisions made by the administration during the shutdown. The White House has taken steps to ensure that U.S. troops, federal law enforcement and immigration officials are paid. Other federal workers have continued to work without pay.

China has launched the Renminbi Digital cross-border payments system, which could become an alternative to SWIFT. The system allows payments in digital yuan, which is convenient for companies seeking to bypass the dollar system. The digital yuan is a token circulating on China’s state-owned blockchain network and issued by the People’s Bank of China. Commercial banks and licensed operators provide clients with access to this currency, and international gateways connect the infrastructure between the system’s participants. Renminbi Digital is currently limited in scope, but is already available in ASEAN countries, the Middle East, Russia and several CIS countries. It is expected that by 2025 the system will process a turnover equivalent to over $90 billion. According to experts, the transition of international payments to central bank digital currencies has already begun. The digital yuan is a central bank digital currency issued by China’s central bank – the People’s Bank of China. It is the first digital currency issued by a major economy, and has been in public testing since April 2021. The digital RMB is legal tender and has equivalent value to other forms of the yuan, also known as the Chinese yuan (CNY), such as banknotes and coins. The digital yuan is designed to move instantly in both domestic and international transactions. It aims to be cheaper and faster than existing financial transactions. The technology allows transactions to be made between two offline devices. The digital yuan is seen by some commentators as a form of surveillance and control by the Chinese government over consumers and their financial transactions.