The value of the credits granted by the banks in Bulgaria has grown two times over the last 2-3 years. There was a growth from 11 to 20 per cent of the GDP, announced the Executive Director of TB Bulgaria Invest and deputy Chairman of the Association of the Trade Banks Mr. Dimitar Kostov., who was among the participants in the forum Modern Bank. The share of the deposits is 31 per cent of the GDP. The assets of the bank system during 2002 reached 45 per cent of GDP.
Source: Standard 

Within July 16 will be submitted preliminary offers for the purchase of 51 per cent from IPK Rodina. The printing house will be sold at a two-tire competition, was reported from PA. The candidates have to be publishers with incomes over BGN 10 million for 2002. Also are allowed to participate consortium between publishers with total incomes of BGN 10 million or between a publisher and other kind of investors but the first has to hold 51 per cent from the consortium. Competition documents may be bought by June 27 and cost BGN 1000 and the information memorandum costs BGN 2500. The deadline for receiving of a certificate for registration and purchase of memorandum is July 7.
Source: Standard 

The negotiations for the sale of Varna Shipyards to Tzakos Bulgaria will be ceased was reported from the Ministry of Transport. The applicant purchaser did not accept several of the significant terms of the deal and offered the lowest price. The first applicant purchaser, who was eliminated from the auction, was Madesta Holding. The Bulgarian company AKB Fores and the British Baker invest are the remaining participants in the auction for the sale 75 per cent of the capital of the Shipyards.
Source: Sega

Foreign businessmen will manage BTC but this will be decided in the beginning of next week, said the Minister of Transport and Communications Mr. Plamen Petrov. There are still discussions with the banks about the dividend of BTC and the re-balancing of the phone calls’ prices. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development sent a letter to Mr. Petrov in which warned that if the State did not take the whole dividend, the bank would demand an immediate payment of the granted credit of EUR 70 million.
Source: Standard  

Petrol JSC, Sofia will not distribute dividends as of 2002, was decided at the General Meeting of the company, which was conducted on May 26. The company reported a profit of BGN 8 653 000, which will be used for raising of the capital of the company.
Source: Capital market 

MG Elit Holding JSC, Sofia will not distribute dividends as of 2002, was decided at the General Meeting of the company, which was conducted on May 23. The company reported a profit of BGN 3 995 000, which will be allocated in Reserves Fund.
Source: Capital market

The plant for non-ferrous metals in Plovdiv is the first company in Central and Eastern Europe that will install integrated information system for management of the production and administrative processes /ERP/, said Mr. Dimitar Nestorov who is IT Manager in the plant. The system will work on the most modern hardware platform of HP server Itanium2 with 64-byte architecture. The project is in partnership with Siemens Business Services and SAP-Bulgaria. The economic effect of the system is expressed in improvement of the whole activity of the company with 3-7 per cent. The annual net sales of the plant are over USD 100 million and over 2/3 of the production are for export. 
Source: Pari

The main part of the contracts of Unionleasing SPJSC is for agricultural equipment and machinery, announced the Director of Veliko tarnvo-based branch of Unionbank Mr. Ivailo Dosev. There is a significant interest in the activity of the leasing company. The main part its clients are from Veliko Tarnovo and Gorna Oryahovitza region. Unionleasing requires no guarantees from the legal entities and sole proprietors, who purchase equipment on leasing.
Source: Yantra - Veliko Turnovo

Further to the recommendations made by the representatives of the ILO-Budapest and the Belgian OHS service Prevemed during the workshop on OHS issues held in Sofia in February 2003, BIA organised a consecutive working meeting in the city of Stara Zagora with the aim to discuss the possibilities to set up a comprehensive pilot occupational health and safety service. 
Participants in the meeting, held in the premises of the Industrial Association of Stara Zagora, were the ILO-CEET representative Mr. Standaert, representatives of the BIA headquarters, of the local Industrial Association and of single local companies. 
Main subject discussed during the meeting was the development of a pilot programme for creating an all-embracing OHS service, which would not only comply to the national regulation and provisions in this field but would also respect the EU requirements and ILO standards.  The participants considered the state-of-the-art of the existing occupational health service at the Ind. Association of Stara Zagora and the possible ways to improve its organisation and extend the services it offers to its potential members and customers. 
Additional meetings were held at the Medical faculty of the Trakia University to explore the possibilities to involve the science in the OHS service development and then with the management of the local Industrial Association.

USA
DHL Airways will clarify its ownership and operational structure in a filing on Thursday with the Department of Transportation. Opponents FedEx and United Parcel Service expect to use the filing to bolster their case that the air carrier is controlled by German distribution group, Deutsche Post. The documents were ordered by Ronnie Yoder, the DoT's chief administrative law judge, in a preliminary hearing on Tuesday. Judge Yoder is proceeding with a public hearing on August 19 to determine if DHL Airways, based in Miami, violates US laws limiting foreign ownership and control of US carriers. At stake is the lucrative US package delivery market, which has been the domain of UPS and FedEx. Deutsche Post has made it no secret that it wants to expand in this market through it s subsidiary, DHL Worldwide Express. DHL Airways flies packages for DHL Worldwide in the US. The German postal operator also bought Airborne's ground package delivery operations for $1.05bn in March, spinning off Airborne's air carrier to ABX Air. UPS and FedEx contend that the spin-off is also subject to the same foreign ownership scrutiny surrounding DHL Airways. 
Source: FT