The General Meeting of Shareholders of Dunavska Koprina JSC – Ruse, convened and presided by representative of the major owner Muller&Sons – Germany, elected a new Board of Directors yesterday. Its members are the former Chairperson Eng. Milka Dimitrova, Mr. Christo Shterev from Siltek-Svilengrad and Mr. Marian Balabanov from Studentski Stolove – Ruse.
Source: Pari 

Naftex Petroleum – Bulgaria holds directly 77.25 per cent from the capital of Petrol JSC. The other big shareholder in Petrol with 14.4 per cent of the new shares is the Varna-based company Ros Oil JSC, owned by Naftex-Bulgaria Holding. The total share of the two major shareholders in Petrol is 91.65 per cent. According to brokers, however, Naftex-Bulgaria Holding controls another few per cent from the capital in Petrol JSC. The data, included in the 2002 report, shows that Naftex and the related entities held 92.92 per cent from Petrol, and in the beginning of the year their share has certainly grown due to the buy-out campaign, held by Eurobank.
Source: Pari

Bulgargas will invest during 2003 BGN 12 million own funds in the sole in Bulgaria crib for natural gas Chiren. These are 42 per cent of the planned investments of the gas company for 2003. The modernization of the technologies and the renew of the main funds of the gas crib will be finalized and officially opened in October, this year, said the Executive Director of Bulgargas Mr. Kiril Gegov.
Source: Standard 

A partner of Navigation Maritime Bulgare (NMB) for the management of the ship factory will be elected within two weeks. This was announced by Mr. Slaveyko Staykov, Director of the NMB’s Board of Directors. Currently, NMB is in negotiations with Baker Investments Corporation, which is supposed to assume 75 per cent of the assets of Varna Shipyards. The final agreement with the company partner will be for establishment of a joint venture.
Source: Standard 

Bank Consolidation Company reports a profit before taxation of BGN 219 million for 2002. The General Meeting of the company is today. BCC is among the first four state-owned companies by financial results. The company will pay BGN 51,5 million taxes to the State.
Source: Standard 

USA
Visteon, the world's second-largest automotive parts supplier, said it was likely to start seeking acquisitions next year after conceding that it could not generate sufficient organic growth to expand its business away from reliance on Ford Motor Company, its biggest customer. The Michigan-based company, whose shares fell 5 per cent on Friday after it reported a second-quarter loss, said that while it was currently studying a handful of small acquisition targets, mostly in Germany, these would not be sufficient to "grow business away" from Ford fast enough. Dan Coulson, chief financial officer, said Visteon had its "hands full" with an ongoing restructuring and dealing with expected weakness in the industry for the rest of the year. But he told the Financial Times: "Once we get a clearer picture on next year and beyond we'd like to be able to consider a more significant acquisition." ArvinMeritor, another parts maker, earlier this month underscored the need for many parts suppliers to consolidate further by announcing a hostile bid for rival Dana Corporation. Dana has said it is likely to respond this week. Most large US parts makers that for decades thrived by supplying a wide range of components to Detroit's "big three" are increasingly realising that to survive as Asian and European carmakers steal market share from Detroit, they must specialise and seek more business from those Asian and European carmakers. 
Source: FT