Financial news

A temporary trustee in bankruptcy appointed by the court shall collect the cash receivables of the bank, including by requiring a warrant for immediate execution under the procedure of the Code of Civil Procedure on the basis of citations from the account books, Parliament decided Thursday, passing conclusively revisions to the Bank Bankruptcy Act through an amendment to the VAT Act. The MPs amended the VAT Act to introduce regulations allowing municipalities, in their capacity as owners of water supply and sewerage infrastructure whose construction was funded under Operational Programme (OP) Environment 2007-2013, to exercise their right to tax credit for VAT charged on supplies received after January 1, 2007. The amendments were passed as a result of halted funding under the OP of VAT expenditure by municipalities for water supply and sewerage projects. The funding of the VAT expenditure was halted after the European Commission said in a letter that the expenditure in question constituted ineligible costs under the EU's Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund since the operation of the built water and sewerage infrastructure generated proceeds subject to the payment of VAT.

Bulgaria has won the top spot in the Most Impressive Borrower in Central & Eastern Europe category of GlobalCapital Bond Awards 2015. The award went to Bulgaria in recognition of the successful placement of a EUR 3.1 B new benchmark triple-tranche bond comprising of seven-, 12- and 20-year maturities in March at the best possible market conditions, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. Coupon on the bonds was at one of the lowest levels achieved by Bulgaria on global capital markets so far. The transaction drew strong investor interest and wide diversity of bids, which testify to Bulgaria’s good creditworthiness, stable macroeconomic fundamentals and exceptional consistency in financial stability and fiscal discipline policies. GlobalCapital is a leading news, opinion and data service for people and institutions involved in trading on the global capital markets.

A total of 1,019,939 Bulgarian citizens have an average monthly income of up to BGN 340, according to data of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) for 2014. The statistics, provided in a written response of Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov to MPs from the opposition, show that 1 400 096 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of BGN 340-1000. A total of 268 105 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of BGN 1000-1514, a total of 90 580 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of BGN 1514-2000, a total of 118,999 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of BGN 2000-5000, a total of 15,773 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of BGN 500-10 000, and a total of 6751 Bulgarians have an average monthly income of over BGN 10,000, according to NRA data. The total average household income increased by BGN 71 on the year in the first quarter of 2015, reaching BGN 2872.4. The total average income per household member increased by 0.8% on the year in Q1, 2015 to BGN 1186.9.

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

Privatization

National Assembly included again in the banning list for privatization A.D.I.S. (Domestic Diplomatic Properties Agency) SPLTD, Audio Video Orpheus and National Agency Music LTD. This was made with a change in the Law on Privatization. Audio Video Orpheus and A.D.I.S. (Domestic Diplomatic Properties Agency) SPLTD were excluded from the list in 2011, while National Agency Music in 2013. Audio Video Orpheus’s activity is related to digital restoration of classical Bulgarian motion pictures and documentaries which is a guarantee for protection of the national cultural heritage. That is why it’s banned from privatization. Procedure for privatization of A.D.I.S. (Domestic Diplomatic Properties Agency) SPLTD was stopped in 2013, while now it will be terminated for good.

Companies

Sirma Business Consulting will build a platform for e-banking in the Caribbean. The project is being implemented in the bank TECU Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited in Trinidad and Tobago. Along with the platform in the credit institution will hold consultations and in the implementation of the core banking system FlexCube. Although it is unknown destination, Trinidad and Tobago is a country with considerable resources and well-developed economy, heavily influenced by the oil industry, tourism and manufacturing. Economic growth is driven by the production of oil and steel, as in the past six years the country has become a major exporter of liquefied natural gas to the United States. The client SirmaBK, TECU Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited is the most innovative and thriving institution on the Caribbean island, which operates more than 60 years and today is distinguished by its innovative products for lending to citizens and leasing.

Sopharma sold 75% of its shares in Extab Corporation and now holds just 5% of the company. The name of the buyer is not disclosed. The registered in the US state Delaware company has a license for sale of the original Bulgarian medicine for giving up smoking under the name of Tabex in the USA, Mexico, UK, China, Australia, etc. The very Extab Corporation is founded in 2009 with the aim to succeed in proving the medicine’s efficiency before the most stringent drug agency in the world - the Food and Drug Administration of the USA (FDA). After the change Extab will not produce the drug by itself, it will be still produced in Bulgaria. Besides, Sophаrma continues to hold rights for its sale on traditional markets such as Bulgaria and 15 more European countries. Tabex is an original Bulgarian product of herbal origin. Its active ingredient cytosine is extracted from the colors of the yellow acacia. It has been produced since 1964.

Trustees of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) focused on one of the most attractive assets of the bankrupt CCB - fuel distributor Petrol. They obtained the right to lien on the shares of its subsidiary Elite Petrol-Lovech which owns 124 gas stations chain. The distraint is imposed by the Commercial Department of the Sofia City Court on 19 May. With the company's shares is secured claim of CCB related to Petrol companies Arven, Elite Petrol and Naftex Petrol totaling almost USD 53 mln. At the end of 2013, CCB acquired majority ownership of Petrol, whose main creditor it had become in recent years. In March 2014 the management of the company was officially entered by persons and companies associated with the former banker Tsvetan Vasilev. But after putting the bank under special supervision Petrol passed under the control of connected to businessman Grisha Ganchev companies. Grisha Ganchev became chairman of the board of the company in late May last year, and the company headquarters was moved from Sofia to Lovech.

Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) has awarded a contract for reconstruction and maintenance of a section of the country's Hemus motorway to local company Avtomagistrali-Tcherno More. Three offers were filed in the tender which comprises maintenance, winter maintenance and repairs in emergency situations on sections of Hemus motorway. The Hemus motorway is designed to connect the capital city of Sofia with Varna, situated on the Black Sea coast.

On the 21st of May Chaikapharm high quality drugs JSC’s issue was registered on the Bulgarian Stock exchange. The company’s capital is BGN 43.5 million, while its code is 7TH. The first registered deal was for 500 shares at a price of BGN 4.26 per lot.

Europe

Members of the European Parliament adopted new rules to help fight money laundering and terrorist financing in the EU, one of the key actions in the European Security Agenda presented last month. Vera Jourova, the EU's Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, welcomed the vote in Parliament which marked the final adoption of the anti-money laundering package: "Serious and organised crime is driven by profit - tracing the illicit proceeds of crime back to the criminal networks is essential both to detect, prosecute and dismantle those networks and to seize and confiscate their criminal wealth. The new anti-money laundering rules adopted today will help us follow the money and crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing." The Commission will supplement this legislation by working on a supranational assessment of risks. Both texts fully take into account the 2012 Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international standard-setter in the field, and go further on a number of issues to promote the highest standards for anti-money laundering and to counter terrorism financing.

America

Federal Reserve officials at their April policy meeting said in the most explicit terms yet that they are unlikely to start raising short-term interest rates in June, as seemed possible when 2015 began. Officials have been saying they won’t begin lifting their benchmark federal funds rate from near zero until they see more improvement in the labor market and are confident inflation will rise toward their 2% target. Several of them started the year thinking they might reach that point by midyear. But by last month, after watching the economy stumble through the winter, many at the April 28-29 meeting were doubtful those criteria for a rate increase would be met, according to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday. Many officials “thought it unlikely that the data available in June would provide sufficient confirmation that the conditions for raising the target range for the federal funds rate had been satisfied, although they generally did not rule out this possibility,” the minutes said.

Asia

China has a new No. 1 priority for its economy. It's not reform anymore, as the government announced last year, it's growth. Out with the old, in with the old. This shift is happening because the whole reform push was absolutely killing growth. Not just dampening it, as the government expected, killing it. What's more, all of the tools China tried to use to prevent that killer — three interest-rate cuts since November as well as other policy measures — simply didn't work. "Knowing that Beijing has not yet given up on economic growth, we are not surprised to see that its stance on fiscal reform is softening for the moment," Societe Generale China analyst Wei Yao wrote in a recent note. "The top priority has again shifted (temporarily) from reform to growth." The problem here is that private-sector demand isn't making up for public-sector demand lost during this reform push. So it's back to the old recipe for growth in China. Banks will start ramping up loans to fund infrastructure projects again (especially stalled state projects). Local governments competing with private companies for development projects will get preferential tax breaks again.

Troyan Monastery

Some 10 km east from Troyan, in immediate proximity to the beautiful region of Oreshak, is situated the Troyan Monastery “Uspenie Bogorodichno”. There are little facts known about its early history. Most research-workers think it was founded in the beginning of the 17th century. According to one lost story, its founder was a nameless monk-anchoret. The history of the Troyan Monastery is mostly related to the Bulgarian National Revival period. Eminent men of letters worked here during the mid-18th century, and a School was also founded. In 1872, Vassil Levski set up here a secret revolutionary committee, which was joined by all the monks headed by the Father Superior Macarius. Four years later, the monastery became a citadel of the 1876 April Uprising. But above all, the Troyan Monastery is known for the creative work of Zahari Zograph who painted both the exterior and the interior (a rare practice for the time) of the main church. It is a fine example of the impact of the popular conception of the world and the influence of housing architecture on religious construction. Here, Zahari Zograph repeated the social and moral "experiments" in religious painting (the compositions Doomsday and the Wheel of Life), left his second self-portrait signed with amazing self confidence in spite of the Ottoman bondage, and painted the figures of Bulgarian and Russian saints. Besides, he painted a completely secular group portrait of the monastic brotherhood in the refectory - something highly unusual for the time. The Troyan monastery’s museum collection contains various works of applied arts as well. The iconostasis of the main church is a masterpiece of woodcarving. Amazing in its originality, is the much earlier carving of the holy altar gates in the St. Nikola Chapel. The monastery's "printery" in which fine graphic works, including many landscapes, were made, was widely known.

On that day:  Church St. Dimitar of Thessaloniki in the village of Brejani Ivan Vedar - the founder of Bulgarian freemasonry The first Bulgarian woman on Mt. Everest