Financial news

Bad credits were soaring by BGN 1,742 per minute in November 2010. thus, at the end of the penultimate month of last year, the bad and restructured personal loans in Bulgaria reached BGN 4.288 billion. The situation in October was even worse, as bad credits were soaring by BGN 1,745 per minute, then. It is hardly a wonder, then, that the single European currency, Euro, has become the preferred one for housing and consumer loans since a year ago; in the period November 2009-November 2010 the former increased by a total of BGN 447 million and the latter by BGN 234 million. At the same time, the housing loans in BGN dropped by BGN 164 million y/y and in November 2010 totaled BGN 4.2 million, while the consumer loans decreased by BGN 674 million year-on-year.

In the third quarter of 2010 the decrease of the production of mineral fuels continues, shows the industry report of SFB Capital Market JSC on the development of the sector. Compared to the second quarter of 2010 production is less by 12.9% and YoY - by 14.1%. During the first nine months of 2010 the reduction is 18.8% YoY. In the third quarter of 2010 the decrease in import of mineral fuels is by 8.6% YoY. Export continued to decline as well - by 3.6% over the third quarter of 2009. During the first nine months of the year the reductions in тхе imported and exported mineral fuels on an annual basis are 23% and 14.1% respectively. Estimates show that 19.9% less fuel are provided for domestic sales in Bulgaria in the third quarter of 2010, and by 24.2% less in the whole period January-September. For more information and orders see: http://sfb.bia-bg.com

	Mineral Fuels, Tailoring Products, Canning, Perfumery and Cosmetics, Furniture, Meat Products, Wine, Wood-processing Industry

Companies

Businesses opposed the privileges of state-run and municipal companies which usually win public procurement orders without bidding in tenders. Their proposal has been taken into consideration in the new draft bill on public procurement to be adopted by the Council of Ministers in January and voted by Parliament until August. It also stipulates that public procurement orders will be awarded to inside companies that are 100%-owned by the assigner. The orders will be called “in house” and will be defined in new law. A big part of the public procurement orders are not based on tender relations but on negotiations and this is quite frightening, Bojidar Danev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), commented, regarding GERB’s proposal for the adoption of an entirely new Act on Public Procurement. In world practise, the so-called “in house companies” award public procurement orders without procedures or tenders. This practise is only for certain purposes and can be applied solely on the territory of the municipality where the company is registered.

London-listed fund Trans Balkan Investments Ltd (TBIL), formerly Equest Investments Balkans, is proceeding with plans to sell electronics retailer TechnomarketDomo (TMD), which has business in Bulgaria and Romania, according to a company statement to the London Stock Exchange. The sale, proposed in summer 2010, has been triggered by TBIL's weakened liquidity and deteriorated property portfolio. The fund's board has concluded that the only realistic option for TBIL is to sell its 61.8 per cent holding in TechnomarketDomo as soon as it can reasonably be achieved. Soon after TBIL announced plans to sell its stake, TMD's minority shareholders - Bulgarian electronics retail group K&K Electronics and Romanian household appliances retailer Domo, made a bid to acquire TBIL's interest in the company.

“The offer consist of a land plot of about 8,000 decares which includes the production site of the Kremikovtzi plant, its administrative building, the commercial directorate and some movable property such as cars. The initial price is set at BGN 395 mln but about 110 decares more are included in the original properties offered on September 13 and November 5, 2010,” said Tsvetan Bankov, trustee in bankruptcy of the company. "Now, we are not talking any more about an enterprise but about the cashing of assets," he said. In his words, candidates viewing the property visit the site continuously. Kremikovtzi was declared bankrupt at the end of May and its liabilities to creditors exceed BGN 2 bln.

The freight volume processed by Port Varna, one of Bulgaria's two major Black Sea ports, grew by 12% in 2010, year-on-year. The port handled a total of 8 mln mt of goods and cargoes in 2010 from the 6.7 mln mt in 2009. It completed 2010 with a net profit of BGN 4 mln, almost triple the 2009 profit. Port Varna invested BGN 3 mln in its facilities in 2010, and plans to invested another BGN 3-5 mln in facilities and equipment in 2011. A total of 1.5 mln mt of grain were exported through the Varna Port in 2010. Bulgaria's Port Varna is facing an increasing competition; for example, in the fall of 2009, Greece's Thessaloniki Port (with a total freight traffic of 14.4 mln mt in 2009) invited Bulgarian companies to use its facilities.

Bulgarian drug Bulgarian pharmaceuticals maker Sopharma has completed the first stage of the upgrade and certification of its Ukraine-based plant Vitamini OAO, the company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday. The facility's laboratory has been granted a quality certificate, which has already been approved by the Ukrainian authorities, it added. Sopharma acquired the drug factory in 2008, which then ranked 12th in terms of market share in the country. In 2009, Vitamini's license for producing pharmaceuticals was extended till 2012. Currently, the company is building two plants, one each located in Sofia and Belgrade.

At least 5 municipalities will pay back their obligations to the waste management companies of Titan International Holding through the state Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB). The debt will be settled under a scheme, agreed first by the Sofia municipality in late December, which stipulates the transfer of overdue payments through cession agreements with BDB, which will in turn hand them over to Titan, with local authorities to reimburse them within several months. Apart from Sofia, which would settle under the scheme a debt of BGN 4 million, accumulated in the last three months of 2010, BDB has also reached agreements to collect the obligations of the municipalities of Haskovo and Vidin, which are estimated at around BGN 1.1 million. Meanwhile, Smolyan mayor Dora Yankova told the town was currently negotiating the repayment of a BGN 1 million in debts under the mechanism.

Europe

Hungary is in talks about the sale of loss-making airline Malev, the development ministry said on Tuesday after a report that German low-cost carrier Air Berlin's biggest shareholder was in talks. The daily Napi Gazdasag cited unnamed sources as saying Turkish investor Esas Holding had begun talks on buying a majority stake in Malev. The National Development Ministry told Reuters it was "in high level and intensive talks with potential professional investors whose financial wherewithal and long-term view enables the successful execution of the long-term business and alliance strategy of the national airline headquartered in Budapest". The ministry did not name the potential buyers. Past attempts at privatising Malev have failed and, last year, Hungary bought back all but a 5 percent stake from a group of investors including Russia's Vneshekonombank.

America

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to announce as early as Thursday about $100 billion in savings for the Pentagon and cuts to some weapons programs. The announcement will detail a plan that military services have been hammering out for months. The Pentagon is under increasing pressure to cut its budget given huge federal deficits and a reduction of troops in Iraq. One weapons program expected to end is the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, a 40-ton amphibious landing craft that General Dynamics Corp is developing for the Marine Corps, said two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record. Gates is also likely to cancel a ground-launched missile system being developed by Raytheon Co , said defense analyst Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

Asia

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, facing a divided parliament, called on Tuesday for multi-party debate on tax reforms, including the touchy topic of the sales tax, to fund rising social welfare costs in an ageing society. His ratings sagging on doubts about his leadership, Kan also said he was not considering calling a snap election despite speculation he might do so if legislation needed to implement the budget for the fiscal year from April stalls in parliament. "On social security and its financial resources, I would like to start as soon as possible a multi-party debate that includes ruling and opposition parties and show a direction by around June," Kan told his first news conference of 2011.

Museum of History in Samokov

The Museum of History in Samokov (Western Bulgaria) is located in the real center of the town situated only 10 km away from the Borovets resort. In the beginning of the 30s of 20th century the prominent local artists Naum Hadjimladenov and Vasil Zahariev initiated the establishing of a museum collection, which should be exposed in the local community center. The realization of the idea happened in the summer of 1931, actively assisted by the another familiar artists – Hristo Yonchev – Kriskarets, and Pavel Frantsaliiski. The first curator of the museum was Naum Hadjimladenov. Vasil Zahariev was the one to develop Rules of the Museum, which were approved by the Ministry of education thus the museum collection was officially recognized. Later on Hristo Vakarelski described the exponents in an inventory book, and Slavi Genev elaborated a thematic-exposition plan. In 1957 Georgi Belstoinev completed the artistic arrangement of the museum, which is still kept in the first floor. In 1937 Hristo Yonchev – Kriskarets made a unique exhibition of the folk art in the Samokov district, which made the start of the ethnological collection. In 1958 the exposition National Revival was completed, and in 1966 – the Revolutionary Movement one. Today, the Museum of History in Samokov keeps about 30,000 exhibits divide into several main collections: Ethnography, Archeology, Arts, Photography, and Documents.

On that day:  Krustovden Lednitsata cave