Financial news

EUR 39 billion is Bulgaria’s the gross foreign debt towards the end of January, BNB’s data says. The data includes both state debts, as well as obligations of the private sector. The decrease of the total debts as compared to January last year is less by EUR 724 million or by 1.8%. The great part of this decrese is generated in the public sector. As compared to January 2014 the state has less foreign debt by EUR 932 million. In January there was a large debt payment on a bond issue on international markets. In the end of the first month of the year the total state debt is assessed to slightly over EUR 5.6 billion. Banks’ obligations are also going down as compared to a year earlier, but there is increase of the debt in the so called other sectors. Intercompany lending decreased by just over a percentage from a year earlier and is now below EUR 16 billion.

Bulgaria has repaid in full a EUR 1.5 B bridge loan taken out last December, saving nearly four million euro in spending on interest payments. The six-month loan was extended by Citigroup, HSBC, Societe Generale and Unicredit on 18 December 2014 to plug a gap at the state-run Deposit Insurance Fund, which is in charge of repaying deposits at collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank.With the full repayment of the loan on 27 March 2015 the state budget has saved EUR 3.7 M in interest payments. Bulgaria sold a EUR 3.1 B triple-tranche bond comprising of seven-, 12- and 20-year maturities on foreign markets last week as part of its three-year plan to borrow funds for rolling over old debt and financing budget deficits through 2017. The settlement date for the bond issue was 26 March 2015.

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

Privatization

Privatisation deals are going down in number. Deferment or slowdown of privatization procedures is at request of all ministries who are in charge. Employees of Agency for privatization have been shrunk by 40 people. This is the explanation for retaradation in execution of planned activity in privatization and post-privatisation control. All preparation activity, related to sale of 56 privatisation projects has been completed. Privatization assessment and information memoranda of 11 sites have been adopted. Six sites have been prepared and proposed for privatization sale via public tenders. A package of shares of 16 companies has been proposed for sale at the 32nd centralized public auction. The agency accounts for three privatization sales with negotiated payments to the amount of BGn 1 333 700, including compensatory instruments amounting to BGN 1,700 at face value.

Companies

Commission for financial supervision gave software company Sirma group holding’s initial public offering and a one-month’s time for correction. According to the regulator there are missing information and inconsistencies in the document that help investors to make their decision whether to buy from the papers of the company. Besides this, rendering of more information and additional papers is also necessary. Sirma plans to become a public company 23 years after its founding via procedure for capital increase. Sirma is among the influential sotware groups in Southeast Europe with hundreds of competed projects around the world. Investors on the Bulgarian stock exchange may become investors in the company if they save the offered 16 million new shares. The price range in which placement of securities is prepared is between BGN 1.20 - 1.65 per share.

Bulgaria's Euroins Insurance Group (EIG) has received regulatory approval to take full control of HDI Zastrahovane, the Bulgarian unit of Germany-based Talanx International. The regulator's decision was adopted on March 24 and can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within a 14-day period after it was published. EIG has asked for approval to acquire the 94% in HDI Zastrahovane it does not yet own. EIG signed a deal with Talanx International on February 19 to acquire its operations in Bulgaria and Ukraine, Eurohold Bulgaria. The deal for the two units, part of Eurohold's expansion plans and one aimed at strengthening the group's position in the insurance market in Central and Eastern Europe, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.

German REWE together with its retailers BILLA and PENNY prefers not to invest in Bulgaria any more in the name of meager profit and difficult future. That is the reason why for some months now procedure for sale of the sites of the two brands is on. There are actually handed out offers, as well as a real chance to have a negotiated deal in two months’ time. In the first procedure for sale of REWE’s business the offer was for the package composed of stores in both Bulgaria and Romania. It started almost a year ago. Exclusiveness as a purchaser during the negotiations was rendered to a large fund with stake investment with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. That is the based in London fund under the name of Mid Europa. After it was granted status of an exclusive purchaser for a term that expired this year, the fund corrected its offer and thus sellers gave up the deal under these terms. Thus the procedure started over again. In its second attempt REWE’s business in Bulgaria is sold separately. The package announced for sale includes solely sites of BILLA and PENNY. These are 91 stores of the first chain and 49 of the second one. There are two offers. The first is rendered by the union Piccadilly - Carrefour, and the other – by the holders of Bella Bulgaria - the company, named Impala that was found after the unification of Pick-co with Bella Bulgaria.

Bulgaria National Revenue Agency (NRA) levied tax distraints on the six companies connected to Tsvetan Vassilev, former owner of Corporate Commercial Bank (CorpBank). A week ago, the banker sold his shares in the companies to LIC33 – a company established specifically for this deal, against EUR 1. The shares of Mr Vassilev in Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), Dunarit, Avionams, NURTS, GARB, and First Digital correspond to the legal requirements for being placed under tax distraint. The tax destraint does not allow shares and parts of these companies to be sold, placed as collateral, or rented, among other activities.

The Bulgarian project company established for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which was suspended several years ago, will undergo a senior-level reshuffle as of March 31. The current Executive Director of Project Company Oil Pipeline Burgas-Alexandroupolis - BG SPJSC, Anzhel Dimitrov, will be replaced by Alexander Gargov, member of the Board of Directors of the company. Gargov headed the company in the period July 2010 – March 2011 and December 2011 – present. Apart from Gargov, Ivan Ivanov also leaves the Board of Directors of the company. The BoD welcomes two new members, Mariya Veselinova and Nikolay Lyubenov. Veselinova will be Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Project Company Oil Pipeline Burgas-Alexandroupolis - BG SPJSC. Bulgaria’s government announced its decision to stop the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project in end-2011. The intergovernmental agreement with Russia and Greece was terminated by Bulgaria’s parliament in March 2013. The project company will continue to exist until the closure of the international project company Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V., where the Bulgarian company controls a 24.5% stake.

Europe

PCMA Rus, a Russian venture owned by France's PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, will temporarily suspend production of Peugeot, Citroen and Mitsubishi model. The venture, which has a plant in Kaluga south of Moscow, said it would also cut 100 jobs. After several years of growth in excess of 10 percent, car sales in Russia dropped in 2014 as the economy weakened, battered by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and sliding oil prices. The market could plunge by as much as 35 percent this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a string of carmakers have cut back local production. "The continuing deterioration of the market situation forces us to make painful decisions," PCMA Rus said in a statement. Production of the Citroen C4 Sedan and Peugeot 408 will be halted from April 27 to July 10. The production line of sport utility vehicles (SUV) will be stopped from April 27 until May 12.

America

Chevron Corp. abandoned Australian shale exploration and said it will sell its 50 percent stake in that nation’s largest oil refiner. Chevron notified Beach Energy Ltd., its partner in the central Australian shale project, that “the opportunity does not align strategically” with the U.S. explorer’s portfolio, according to a statement Friday from Beach. Selling its half of refiner Caltex Australia Ltd. is expected to yield at least A$4.6 billion ($3.6 billion). Chevron announced plans earlier this month to shed $15 billion in oil and natural gas assets by the end of 2017 and reduce spending on new projects for the next two years. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Watson is raising cash and curbing expenditures after the plunge in global oil prices dented profits and made some fields less attractive to drill. “They are perhaps looking to increase their margins and get away from businesses that offer lower-end margins,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney.

Asia

Japan's annual core consumer inflation ground to a halt in February, the first time it has stopped rising in nearly two years, keeping the central bank under pressure to expand monetary stimulus later this year. Other data published on Friday didn't offer much solace with household spending slumping even as job markets improved, underscoring the challenges premier Shinzo Abe faces in steering the economy toward a solid recovery. While the Bank of Japan has stressed it will look through the effect of slumping oil prices, the soft data will keep it under pressure to expand stimulus to jump-start inflation toward its 2 percent target. Stripping out the effect of last year's sales tax hike, the core consumer price index was flat from a year ago, moving further away from the BOJ's price goal. The last time core CPI did not rise was in May 2013, when it was flat.

Belentash – Rhodopi mountain

The rock massif Belentash is situated some 60 km away from the city of Plovdiv, near the villages of Vrata and Sini Vrah in the Rhodopi mountain. It is a rock plateau, 300 m in length, 35-45 m in width and 50 m in height. The upper platform of the rock is absolutely flat and smooth, as though it has been cut with a knife. There are weird pits and channels in it, which form the map of the starry sky and the constellations. There are also three wells cut into the plateau, which are absolutely smooth regular cylinders. Many myths and mystical stories are being told about Belentash. The name of the rock is of Turkic language origin, and means “smart rock” or “the rock of knowledge”. People think that once this place was one of the big ancient Thracian sanctuaries in the Rhodopi mountain. A unique silver plate with the face of god Sabasius has been discovered in the region of Belentash. Scientists believe that somewhere in the rock the ancient library containing the knowledge of the ancient Thracians is hidden.

On that day:  Vidimsko Praskalo waterfall Emil Dimitrov