Financial news

Bulgaria will set up a Fund for Medical Treatment of Children allocating BGN 5.0 million for the purpose from the budget surplus generated this year, prime minister Mr. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said.  Donations from citizens and companies will be accepted and the sums granted will be reduced from the taxable income. The extent of the donation to this fund will be unlimited, unlike the rules for other types of donations in the country.  There is also idea for collecting funds through national payroll charity, deputy prime minister MKs. Lidia Shuleva said. If three million employed give a month BGN 1.0 each, the fund will accumulate BGN 36 million a year, Ms. Shuleva added. 

Bulgaria will receive EUR 88 million under EU’s ISPA program. Bulgaria's Minister of Finance Mr. Milen Velchev and the head of the European Commission’s delegation for Bulgaria Mr. Dimitris Kurkulas will sign two financial memorandums. The first one is for EUR 72.3 million and is for sulfur-purifying installations construction in 5th and 6th unit of TPP Maritsa-iztok-2. The second memorandum costs EUR 15.9 million.

Privatization

The Privatization Agency (PA) completed the negotiations on the sale of 67 per cent of the capital of Bulgaria's electricity distribution companies by signing the last contract for the Southeast Bulgaria package with Austria's EVN AG. The pool includes the power distribution utilities in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. The draft contract will be submitted for approval to the PA supervisory board and the cabinet. On September 9 the PA initialled the contract for Northeast Bulgaria with Germany's E.ON and on September 14, the agreement with Czech CEZ for the utilities in Sofia and Pleven. 

An Austrian company will supply electricity to Sunny beach. The power distribution company EVN, which won the tender for the power distribution companies in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora will also take over the power supply of the resort complex. The annex to the contract with the Austrian company will raise the negotiated price of EUR 271 million. 

The company SAGA-S, owned by the businessman Mr. Stoyan Shopov has bought Sofia-based Hydrotours-94 for BGN 711 001 at an auction, organized by PA. Mr. Shopov is one of the co-founders of Sever Holding and used to hold a stake in the company until recently. Saga is registered in Elena and operates in the field of “commodity control, hotel management and tourism”. This is the second auction for the sale of 100 per cent of Hydrotours that PA organizes. No candidates appeared on the first one.

The Austrian Airlines will not take part in the privatisation tender for the national flag carrier Bulgaria Air, two independent sources revealed. According to them, Austrian Airlines has not planned funds for buying the company. Austrian Airlines may have abandoned its plan of the EU directive under which a company that acquires a foreign national flag carrier automatically looses the right to fly the directions guaranteed by the bilateral agreements between the two countries.

Companies

The market penetration of GloBul, the local wireless brand of Greek-owned Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile SP JSC, has reached 35 per cent three years after its debut in Bulgaria, the executive director of the company said. Sixty-four percent of the 1.2 mln GloBul subscribers are prepaid. The operator said its parent company OTE will decide whether or not it should bid for the two UMTS licences which Bulgaria is expected to auction off in late 2004 and in 2005.

Only four companies, some of the Bulgarian, have submitted applications in the local Investment Agency to obtain a certificate giving them rights of “big investors”, Mr. Pavel Ezekiev – chair of the agency, announced. Earlier, there were 15 candidates to gain these rights. All four investments are of first class – worth over BGN 100 mln. The agency is to issue the certificates within a month.

Experts from the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) are going to make a presentation of the terms for the use of e-signature in their reception-room within the frames of the technical fair in Plovdiv. The meetings, which started yesterday, will continue today with a presentation of e-signature technologies. Meanwhile, companies will be introduced to the terms and procedures they should follow in order to obtain a certificate.

The town of Sliven may turn into a center for wind electricity production. This will happen if tomorrow the local municipal councilors adopt the proposal of their colleague Mr. Zheliazko Andonov. Mr. Andonov, who is the deputy director of the local electricity distribution company, demands on the municipality to lease its lands to businessmen to build wind generators.

Austria's Austrotherm will build a factory for insulation materials near Sofia to make sure it doesn't' miss out on the upside potential of the Bulgarian market, company representatives announced. The EUR 3.5 mln facility will have annual capacity of 400,000 cu m and should be operational by 2005. In addition to the output of the new factory, Austrotherm will also market in Bulgaria the production of its units in Romania and Austria. 

The establishment of Investment Company of Sofia, the properties it will manage and the number of directors of the company set the councillors of the Bulgarian metropolitan municipality at odds Tuesday. After heated debates and with the votes of the Union of Democratic Forces and the Bulgarian Socialist Party only, the council decided that Sofia would contribute 58 properties to Investment Company.

Revoil, Greece's 8th biggest fuel retailer in terms of market share, has long-term plans to build a network of filling stations in Bulgaria, Revoil business director Mr. Iannis Roussos announced. The investment will be deployed in lock-step with the progress of Sofia's EU integration, the company official added. The transposition of EU and Greek law and the outlook on the adoption of the euro will also be taken into consideration. The fuel retailer intends to source the supply of its future Bulgarian outlets from the liquid fuel storage facility in Kavala, a town located just an hour from the Bulgarian-Greek border. 

United Bulgarian Bank and wireless operator GloBul have teamed up to offer a co-branded credit card with a BGN 10,000-limit. The reward program for users includes a discount on their GloBul bills. The card is accepted at over 5,000 retail outlets in Bulgaria and by over 32 mln merchants around the world. This is the third product developed by UBB after the bank launched a stand-alone ATM system, parting ways with Bulgaria's national card operator BORICA.

Meeting of Experts in Labour Law from South Eastern European Employers’ Organisations Sofia (Bulgaria), 30 September – 2 October 2004

We are pleased to inform you that will be carried out during the period 8th – 10th October 2004 in the town of Panagyurishte, Bulgaria, the Third International Forum "Invest In Panagyurishte" and a Trade exposition. The Forum is expected to be under the auspice of Mrs. Lidya Shuleva, Vice Prime Minister of Republic of Bulgaria an Minister of Economy.

SIXTH SOUTHEAST EUROPE ECONOMIC FORUM 2004 - 1-3 November 2004, National Palace Of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria

BULGARREKLAMA Agency and the Association of apparel and textile exporters in Bulgaria have the pleasure to invite you to “BGate 2004” – Balkan Gate Apparel and Textile Exhibition (08-10 October 2004, Inter Expo Center, Sofia)

Europe

European shipping giant P&O is to close four of its 13 ferry routes with the loss of about 1,200 jobs, the company announced. Reducing the number of ships it operates from 31 to 23, the company said it would be closing all its Western Channel routes except Portsmouth-Bilbao. The move, which is being bitterly opposed by UK shipping union the RMT, is expected to save GBP 55 million (USD 100m) a year. Most of the job cuts would fall on the French side.

USA

Telecommunications equipment maker Motorola Inc. said on Tuesday that it would cut 1,000 jobs and take charges of about USD 50 million for severance benefits as it tries to increase productivity.  The company said it would pay the severance benefits beginning in the third quarter and through the first quarter of next year. For the third quarter, it also said it will have USD 80 million in costs related to early debt repayments. 

Asia

China is poised to make its first takeover of a foreign oil company after oil trader Sinochem Corp. won court approval to buy South Korea’s smallest refiner, Inchon Oil, for about USD 549 million.  China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer after the United States, has been keen to buy overseas oil and gas assets to secure energy supplies for its fast-growing economy.  Inchon Oil is under court receivership in South Korea. 

Sedemte Prestola (The Seven Thrones) Monastery

The Osenovlashki monastery The Virgin Mary, or as it is better known – The Seven Thrones monastery, is one of the most interesting monasteries in Bulgaria. It is located in the upper stream of the river Gabrovnitza, in the western foot of the Stara Planina mountain. It is dated back to the IX century, when a group of Slavonic tribes settled in these lands. Most of them came from the region of Besarabia. The legend says that the monastery was built by seven boyars or seven brothers. That is why its church consists of seven separate rooms/chapels. The church, such as it is nowadays, was built in 1825 and represents a cruciform, three-apse building with a cylindrical dome. Its architecture is unique.