Financial news

Bulgaria's state and state-guaranteed debt declined slightly in August, the finance ministry's bulletin shows. Debt dropped EUR 10.9 million to EUR 8.216 billion, including EUR 1.297 billion domestic and EUR 6.919 billion external debt. Since the beginning of the year debt has fallen EUR 294 million, due to a drop in foreign debt by EUR 437 million. At the same time domestic liabilities have surged EUR 143 million. 

The savings of Bulgarians have reached BGN 5.4 billion, which is a 17.4 per cent year-on-year increase.  Savings have become a major source of investment in the country, according to a report of the consulting agency Industry Watch. Banking deposits have registered a slight drop compared to 2003, according to the report. Bulgaria sees a rising number of people and institutions who think that profitability is higher when depositing your money in an investment company than in a bank, according to the executive director of TBI Asset Management, Mr. Stoyan Toshev.

Privatization

A team of Ealing Studios visited Boyana Film yesterday, the company announced. Ealing Studios is one of the four companies, certified to take part in the competition for the privatization of the local movie center. Bulgarian specialists will be hired for roles in foreign movie productions, if we buy Boyana, Ealing promised.

The turnover, realized during the eighth centralized public auction, which ended recently, totals some BGN 760 000, BGN 741 of which paid in BGN, and over BGN 20 000 – in non-monetary payment instruments, Bulgaria’s Privatization Agency (PA) reported. At the seventh centralized public auction, which was the worst so far, PA reported payments for a total of BGN 1.297 mln, and the turnover realized at the sixth auction was in the amount of BGN 8 mln. According to specialists, the aggravating results are due to the higher quality of the remaining state resource, offered by the state for sale through the capital market.

Companies

Viohalco will open a company for the production of photovoltaic modules, called Energy Solution, at the premises of Stomana Industry. Viohalco has invested EUR 600,000 in the purchase of the production line and EUR 100,000 in the upgrade of the building where the line will be installed. The line will be in Bulgaria by November 2004 and will start operating by February 2005. The first photovoltaic modules produced by the company will be exported to the European Union. The company will be the first enterprise for the production of clean energy using solar power on the Balkan Peninsula.  

Italy’s Gruppo Sicieta Gas Rimini, Construzionni Dondi, and Enel, Austria’s EVN, which recently bought the electricity distribution companies in Stara Zagora and Plovdiv, and Overgas Inc., have submitted offers to receive gas distribution licenses for the Trakia region, State Energy Regulation Commission announced. The deadline for submission of offers expired Monday. Within three months, the regulation commission is due to choose the winner in the competition.

Gorna Oryahovitza-based company Sugar Plants has ended the first nine months of the year with a profit of almost BGN 4 mln, due to the robust sales of sugar and sugar products. Compared wit thesame period of last year, the company has sold 600 t more of sugar. Over the review period, the company has made some BGN 5 mln of investments, planning to add another BGN 2 mln by the end of this year. The money is used for the modernization of the jelly-bonbons production unit, as well as of the spirits plant.

Plovdiv-based company Bella-Bulgaria is currently building a plant for production of butter-dough and rolled pastry in the Romanian town of Gyurgevo. This is the company’s first overseas investment.So far, the Bulgarian company has invested EUR 560 000 in the new facility.

Lukoil plans to invest over USD 350 million in environmental innovations at Bulgaria's Neftochim-Bourgas, Lukoil president Mr. Vagit Alekperov said. Lukoil is currently elaborating a USD 26 million project for the installation of a system reducing sulphur content in Neftochim-Bourgas. In 2005 Lukoil will allocate USD 40 million for environmental innovations in Neftochim. By 2012 Lukoil will invest between USD 250 million and USD 300 million in the production of fuel oil with a sulphur content of under 1 per cent, in accordance with the European Union directives. 

State Receivables Collection Agency (SRCA) has scheduled for October 29 an open-bid auction for the sale of Chimco JSC’s tangible assets. This is the fourth auction to be held since the beginning of the year. Only the first one (in February) was secret-bid. No candidates appeared on the previous dates either. Chimco property worth a total of BGN 3.648 mln will be sold.

Greece-based company Polkom is to launch a new production in the town of Hadjidimovo. Starting next month, buttons for different clothes are to be produced there which will be exported to the European and the US markets. The company expects its Bulgarian registration under the title Bulgarian Button JSC represented by Mr. Andonis Demos – a lecturer in the Athens University, to come out soon. 

Two Bulgarian-Chinese joint ventures will be set up in Bulgaria, deputy prime minister and economy minister Ms. Lidia Shuleva said at a business forum in Beijing. Bulgarian company DASF and Chinese Li Fan will make motorcycles, scooters and vans under a Honda licence. The project will attract a USD 12 million investment. The second joint venture will be between DASF and another Chinese company for the production of large-size plastic products. It will attract a USD 3.4 million investment.  

First National Innovation Forum to be organized in Sofia, Oct 22, 2004

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

Europe

Third quarter net profits at Electrolux dropped by 12 per cent as the world’s largest producer of home appliances was hit by surging costs of raw materials, adverse currency effects and the effect of divestments. The Sweden-based group said on Wednesday that net profits dropped from SKr767m (USD 106m) to SKr677m. Pre-tax profits fell some 26 per cent from SKr1.3bn in 2003 to SKr944m on sales that fell by 2.6 per cent to SKr29.6bn.

USA

Whirlpool Corp., the world's second- largest home-appliance maker, said third-quarter net income fell 3.8 percent because of higher steel and oil costs. The company reduced its full-year profit forecast. Net income dropped to USD 101 million, or USD 1.50 a share, from USD 105 million, or USD 1.48, the Benton Harbor, Michigan-based company said in a statement. Sales in the quarter rose 6.6 percent to USD 3.32 billion. 

Asia

China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd., the world's largest mobile-phone company by users, had a 16 percent gain in third-quarter profit after a marketing drive attracted new users and encouraged people to talk more on their handsets. Profit rose to 10.1 billion yuan (USD 1.2 billion) from 8.73 billion yuan a year ago. Sales rose 28 percent to 51.4 billion yuan. The figures were calculated by subtracting first-half from nine-month earnings released by the Beijing-based company. 

October 21 - Kardjali public holiday

Since 1937, every year on October 21 the town of Kardjali celebrates its official public holiday. On this day in 1912, the town was liberated from the Ottoman yoke. Kardjali is located in the very heart of the eastern Rhodope mountain, along the two banks of the Arda river, 100 km southeast of Plovdiv. 6000 years-old remains of human life as well as ample examples of the presence of Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, late-Ottoman and Bulgarian culture have been found on the territory of the town. After the town's liberation from the Ottoman rule in 1912, Kardjali became the "tobacco warehouse of the eastern Rhodopes", as some of the best quality tobaccos are grown on the special soils in the region. Landmarks of interest are the 11th-12th century Bulgarian basilica "St. John the Precursor", the Historical Museum, housed in a vast mosque-like building and containing superb collections from prehistoric ritual objects to ethnographic costumes and crafts. The two big dams on both sides of the town are excellent places for tourism, water sports and entertainment. Kardjali is the starting point for visits to the numerous rock formations in the region-the Stone Wedding and mushrooms, the Stone Forest, the Rock Widow, the Rocks at Ustra, and the medieval fortress of Perperek.