The Ministry of Finance will offer for sale interest-bearing treasury bonds with a maturity of 2 years in the amount of EUR 150 million at an auction scheduled for January 19, 2026. The government securities (GS) are from issue No. BG 20 300 26 111/21.01.2026, and will be offered with a fixed annual interest rate of 2.25 percent. This will be the first auction for the placement of new debt in 2026. Due to the lack of an adopted State Budget Law, the so-called extension budget is in effect in our country. According to the Public Finance Act, under the conditions of an extension budget, the Council of Ministers may assume government debt to refinance the debt in circulation up to the amount of the annual repayments on the state debt assumed by the beginning of the relevant budget year. Auction participants should note that the Ministry of Finance will offer for sale additional quantities of issue BG 20 300 26 111 from 21.01.2026, reserving the right to reject all, respectively to approve certain orders, as well as to approve a quantity different from the previously announced. Last year, the Ministry of Finance placed new debt through the sale of government securities in the amount of approximately EUR 8.9 billion (BGN 17.4 billion). Government securities for approximately EUR 1.7 billion (BGN 3.3 billion) were placed on the domestic market, and another EUR 7.2 billion were raised as a result of two debt operations on international markets.

The Ministry of Innovation and Growth (MIR) has opened a procedure for applications to strengthen industrial capacity in the field of defense capabilities. It is part of the Competitiveness and Innovation in Enterprises (CIE) Program and is in line with EU policies to enhance the security capabilities of member states. The measure has a budget of EUR 70.6 million and aims to modernize the production of defense-related products or dual-use items. Dual-use goods include, for example, high-performance computers and microprocessors, radar systems, lidars, cryptographic software, drones, other unmanned aerial vehicles, etc. The latter can be used for intelligence and surveillance, as well as for the delivery of goods, in agriculture or for taking photos, videos and films. Micro, small, medium and large enterprises can apply for the procedure. They must develop an economic activity that falls under sector C "Manufacturing", in two of the sections of sector K "Telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy activities, information technology infrastructure and other information services" - 62 "Information technology activities" or 63 "Information technology infrastructure, data processing, hosting and other information services", as well as in sector N "Professional activities and scientific research". The minimum amount of funding is EUR 51,129, and the maximum - up to EUR 3.6 million. The grant under the CPIP reaches 70%, depending on the category of the enterprise, the selected support regime and the place of implementation of the projects. The funds can be used to purchase machinery, facilities, equipment, specialized software, as well as patents, licenses and know-how to improve industrial capacity. Funding is also provided for construction and installation works, which can be up to 50% of the total costs of the relevant project.

The timber harvest in 2025 is at a record low, the Chamber of the Woodworking Industry reports. The transported timber from a temporary warehouse for the past year is only 80% of what was planned according to the forestry plan, the data show. This amount is 30% less than the transported raw material in 2018 - the last year in which the plans were fully implemented. Trees have a life cycle and when we do not take it into account due to pseudo-ecological considerations or simply due to negligence, serious consequences await us, experts warn. The alarming trend of recent years - the decreasing care for forests - leads to catastrophic consequences - a deterioration in the health of trees, a huge number of fallen dry trees, which, as recent examples show, also lead to human casualties. In addition, prerequisites are being created for fires, which have been raging seriously for the past 2 years. The reduced amount of processed wood is leading to company bankruptcies and job losses, especially in mountainous regions. Over 67,000 people work in the forestry and forest industry in the country, creating about 3% of GDP in a bioeconomy that should be based on the principles of modern forestry.

The main mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals in Bulgaria in 2025: The TBI Bank deal is the only one worth over EUR 100 million this year, with all others well below this amount. It is also the most significant acquisition by a financial investor in the country in the past year. The American fund Advent International is well known on the local market - according to Entrea Capital partner Dimitar Uzunov, this is perhaps the global private equity fund with the most successful deals in Bulgaria in the last 20 years - during this period it had stakes in the ceramic tile manufacturer KAI Group, BTC and the bottling company Devin. And the banking deal is its second investment in the local financial sector, after in 2023 it acquired the foundations of a Bulgarian specialized POS terminal operator fintech MyPOS in a deal that, according to a Reuters publication, was valued at EUR 500 million. The most significant deal with a foreign strategic investor for 2025 was the acquisition of the courier services integrator EuShipments.com by the Austrian Post. Nearly four years ago, the development of the Ruse-based company was supported by the Bulgarian private equity fund BlackPeak Capital, which invested 4.5 million euros - subsequently directed towards four acquisitions in the region. Now the grown company is majority owned by Österreichische Post, which acquired 70% of the shares for about 55 million euros, with an option to buy the rest in the next four years. And the deal is also the first full exit of a company from BlackPeak's second fund. Local mergers and acquisitions are rather small in size. Among the more significant ones in their respective sectors were, for example, the negotiated purchase of the pharmacy chain "Medea" by the German Phoenix, which operates in the segment both through its own chain BENU and through the franchise brand BETTY, and is also the owner of the leading local distributor "Phoenix Pharma". In the fuel sector, a new significant player in the market is gradually being assembled by the former owner of the bus company "Union Ivkoni" Ivaylo Konstantinov, who has a chain of gas stations under the Avia brand and is on the way to acquiring the local sites of the Russian "Gazprom", while at the same time buying an oil depot and eight gas stations from the Stara Zagora "Zara-E". The pressure for consolidation is also visible in the fast-moving consumer goods market dominated by German giants, where the capital's chain DAR has agreed to acquire the competing "345". The chain of convenience stores "Minimart" has attracted a sixth investor in the person of the co-owner of "Rompharm" Venelin Georgiev, who invested 20 million euros in its expansion. There was also movement in the more niche retail segment of coffee chains, after during the year the investment funds BlackPeak and Invenio supported two regional players - respectively the Serbian Kafeterija and the Romanian 5 to go, which have ambitions for expansion, including in Bulgaria. In the industrial segment, the deal for 35 million euros for the still unprofitable electric bicycle factory of "Pierre & Maxcom" near Plovdiv was more large-scale. On the terrain of over 200 acres with a building of nearly 43 thousand square meters, the new owner - the German group Liebherr - will locate two of its production facilities - of concrete mixers and of air conditioning systems, and a new production facility will also be developed there - of systems in the aviation industry. The municipal-state company "Industrial Zone Zagore" paid over 28 million euros for the former airport near Stara Zagora, and will use the terrain of nearly 2,200 acres to expand the industrial park near the city. The deal with which Carl Zeiss Jena entered the Panagyurishte "Optics Plant" was also significant from the point of view of the entry of an international strategic investor, although much smaller in size - in return for a capital increase of nearly 3.5 million euros, the German giant subscribed for 31.5% of the shares. There will be more activity in the food sector, where the process of the exit of the American fund The Rohatyn Group (TRG) from the biscuit and wafer manufacturer "Prestige-96" is currently underway.

In 2025, over 6.9 million e-vignettes were sold, and the revenue from them was over 320 million leva, the Road Infrastructure Agency (API) announced. Of all the annual vignettes sold, 2,635,210 were annual, and 2,631,408 were weekly. This was followed by monthly vignettes – 848,133, weekend vignettes – 699,129, and quarterly vignettes – 109,583. A total of 244,916 vehicle owners received free e-vignettes, provided through the Social Assistance Agency, which are worth over 22.3 million leva and are at the expense of the RIA budget. In 2026, the prices of e-vignettes remain unchanged and are displayed in euros and leva. The conversion is carried out automatically at the official fixed exchange rate and will not require additional actions from users. The prices of vignettes in 2026 are as follows: Annual – 49.60 euros (97 BGN); Quarterly – 27.61 euros (54 BGN); Monthly – 15.34 euros (30 BGN); Weekly – 7.67 euros (15 BGN); Weekend – 5.11 euros (10 BGN); One-day – 4.09 euros (8 BGN) and is in effect from February 3, 2026. The one-day vignette will be introduced from February 3, 2026. It will be valid for passenger cars up to 3.5 tons and will allow use of the national road network for a period of 24 hours.

Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB) has finalized the purchase of its smaller competitor Tokuda Bank and has signed the final agreement for the transfer of shares. The deal itself was announced back in the spring of 2024 and relatively quickly received approval from the CPC, but the permission from the banking regulator was delayed quite a bit - until December 2025. Due to Bulgaria's membership in the Banking Union and the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the purchase had to receive the green light from the European Central Bank, and the BNB only formally issued approval. The deal is for 100% of the capital of the smallest bank registered in Bulgaria, which is formally owned by the Japanese Tokushukai Incorporated - the corporation of the Japanese tycoon Torao Tokuda, which was the original investor in the country's first large private hospital "Tokuda". However, over the years, actual control over the bank has often been associated with various local economic groups. With assets of just over EUR 257 million as of the end of September 2025, when the latest data published by the BNB were, Tokuda Bank occupies less than 0.3% of the banking market in Bulgaria, with only some branches of foreign financial institutions operating in the country being smaller than it. As of the first nine months of last year, it reported net interest income of EUR 6 million and a profit of just over EUR 2.2 million. Its equity is over EUR 33 million, with EUR 174 million in household deposits and just under EUR 47 million in corporate deposits. Its loan portfolio of EUR 155 million is mainly aimed at businesses (EUR 85 million). The public BACB, for its part, has EUR 1.4 billion in assets as of September 2025, which places it in 13th place in the local market with a 1.32% share. After the deal, total assets would climb one position higher. The purchase is being financed with own funds and the process of merging Tokuda Bank is about to begin.

Industrial Park "Perla" will be built in Nova Zagora with funding under the Regional Development Program 2021 - 2027. The project will be implemented on the principle of public-private partnership by the Municipality of Nova Zagora with the participation of business representatives in the city - "Milkotronic" OOD, MDM Retail Property OOD, Sorico OOD and "Diev Invest" OOD. Milkotronic OOD is a leading manufacturer of ultrasonic milk analyzers and other devices for the dairy industry. The area of ​​​​Industrial Park "Perla" is nearly 70 decares. The Municipality of Nova Zagora is a key partner in the project with infrastructure activities, including major repairs of streets in the Southern Industrial Zone, repairs of parking lots and access infrastructure and construction of an overpass over the railway line. The project implementation period is 2 years from the signing of the contract. The budget that the municipality will have at its disposal is BGN 10,520,312 including VAT. divident.eu

In 2025, the EU imported 312.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas, with almost half of this amount being liquefied natural gas (LNG) - 143.1 billion cubic meters. This is shown by data from the European Gas Infrastructure. The main supplier of natural gas remains Norway - the EU's imports from this country are 97.1 billion cubic meters (31 percent), with the volume remaining largely unchanged. The United States is increasingly confidently occupying second place with 82.9 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) - 26.5 percent of total gas imports and 58 percent of liquefied gas imports. The growth in EU natural gas imports from the United States on an annual basis is as much as 61 percent. Algeria is the third largest importer of gas to the EU, with 38.6 billion cubic meters (12.3 percent), with supplies from the African country declining in 2025. Russia supplied 38 billion cubic meters to the EU in 2025 (12.1 percent). More than half of this was liquefied natural gas (LNG). Volumes from Russia fell sharply after the suspension of gas transit through Ukraine.

The Trump administration is taking a $150 million stake to develop the only major U.S. producer of gallium, a critical raw material used in satellite systems and military radar. The Defense Department and an affiliate of Pinnacle Asset Management will announce a strategic partnership Monday with Atlantic Alumina Co., or ATALCO, which has been refining bauxite into aluminum outside New Orleans since the late 1950s. Alumina is a fine white powder used to make aluminum. The deal is the latest in an unprecedented effort by the Trump administration to invest directly in companies it sees as critical to U.S. national security. Last year, Trump took a stake in chipmaker Intel Corp. while negotiating a so-called “golden share” in U.S. Steel Corp. as part of its acquisition by Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. The Pentagon has invested $150 million in preferred equity in ATALCO, which will use the funds, along with another $300 million from Pinnacle, to increase aluminum production and “create the nation’s first and only large-scale gallium production chain,” according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. The U.S. government is expected to provide “additional funding” within 30 days of the deal closing. Last year, the Trump administration also helped a private U.S. company acquire a majority stake in the largest undeveloped tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan.