Financial news

National Insurance Institute announced that the size of the average insurable income for the country for the month of June in 2015 is BGN 714.05. The average monthly insurance income for the period between 07.01.2014 and 06.30.2015 was BGN 704.04. Designated average monthly income in the country for that period served in calculating the size of new pensions in July 2015, pursuant to Article 70, paragraph 2 of the Social Security Code.

Amendments to the Ordinance on working hours, rests and leaves remove the obligation on employers to endorse a schedule of employees' paid annual leaves during the year but introduce a requirement whereby by the end of January each year employers are to inform employees on the length of paid annual leave the latter are entitled to use, including postponed or unused leave from previous years, the government's information service said on Wednesday. Employees are to use their annual paid leave by the end of the calendar year for which it is due. Where the employee has not demanded his or her leave by the end of the calendar year for which it is due, the employer may serve a written invitation to the employee. If the employee does not wish to use the leave, the employer may ask him or her to do so without his/her consent. Where the annual leave has been postponed or left unused by the end of the calendar year for which it is due, the employer is under the obligation to ensure the use of such leave by June next year at the latest. In case the employer has not allowed the use of such leave by the deadline, the employee may himself/herself determine the time when he/she will use it within the prescribed deadline, by a 14-day prior notice in writing to the employer.

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Companies

World-renowned climbing walls manufacturer Walltopia has announced that two equity funds, one from China and one from Bulgaria, have acquired a minority stake in the company. These are BlackPeak Capital, a Bulgaria-based private equity fund, and the China-CEE Fund. BlackPeak capital was set up under the EU's Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE). China-CEE for its part was established by China Exim Bank together with "other institutional investors from the CEE [Central and Eastern Europe] region to capitalize on investment opportunities in CEE countries. As of August this year the fund manages assets worth USD 435 M. Walltopia says that  this is the first investment of the Chinese fund into Bulgaria. Established in 1998, Walltopia has built over 250 000 square meters of climbing walls in some 50 countries.

The initial public offering (IPO) of Bulgarian software developer Sirma Group on the Bulgarian stock exchange (BSE) will open on September 16, Elana Trading, which is managing the offering, said. Investors can file their applications for subscription of shares in the course of 30 days starting September 16. The issue price has been set in the BGN 1.2 - 1.65 range, as the final issue price is to be announced on October 16. If the IPO is successful, the Sirma Group shares are expected to start trading on the BSE by the end of the year. The IPO will be considered successful if at least 8 million shares are subscribed for. Investors will be offered 16,000,000 newly issues shares with a par value of BGN 1 each. In case they are oversubscribed, within a 5 day period existing shareholders will have the right to offer for sale 5% of the shares they hold, or 2,491,858 existing shares with a par value of BGN 1 each in total, as they can be subscribed for by investors who have filed subscription applications. The deadline for payment of the subscribed shares is expected to be October 30.

Swiss company pCloud that renders cloud services got funding to the amount of USD 3 million. The sum is provided by a private investor with experience in the IT sphere. pCloud is set up in 2013 and is managed by a Bulgarian team of specialist in the IT field. For pCloud it’s not the first funding. For the period since its founding the company succeeded in doubling its users all around the world, as they reached 2 million. The largest part of its customers is from Europe and Asia. After the accumulated investment of USD 3 million, pCloud plans expansion on new markets, as well as entering the B2B sector, as increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises use cloud services. Plans for spread of the platform include increase of partner networks and opening of subsidiaries in Western Europe, US and other suitable for the company markets. pCloud’s aim in the coming years is to become more popular brand in the sphere of cloud technologies. Among the services that pCloud offers are desktop application pCloud Drive and ability to encrypt files with enhanced security - pCloud Crypto. Mobile application of the company is active for operating systems iOS and Android

Construction of the third line of Sofia's Metro will start at the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, Metropoliten EAD Executive Director Stoyan Bratoev said on Thursday. Bratoev and Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova were inspecting the progress of construction of an extension of the Sofia Metro Line 2 in the southern part of the city. The third line will have a total length of 16 km and 18 stations. Bratoev noted that construction of the project's first stage should start next spring. It will be 7.8 km-long and have eight metro stations. The section is included in OP Transport 2014-2020 with a projected cost of BGN 440 million. The competitive bidding for the selection of contractors has ended. A commission is currently working on selecting a supplier of the rolling stock.

Not a single offer was handed out in the tender for sale of 15% of Technomarket Bulgaria that was organized by Corporate commercial bank’s assignee due to unpaid loan of a debtor. The share of the commercial chain was offered for BGN 6.3 million. The offered stake is small. The present owners hardly need any additional shares in the company. The first attempt for sale started at a price of BGN 6.3 million for 170 900 shares with a nominal of BGN 10, equal to 15% of Technomarket Bulgaria’s capital. This means that the company is assessed to BGN 42 million. The commercial chain has revenues of BGN 541 million for 2014, which makes it among the 30 largest companies in the country. The profit for last year is BGN 625 thousand. The reason for the sale of the chain is obligation of its shareholder Domtech Holding to Corporate commercial bank, as till now its value is not clear. Other shareholders in Technomarket Bulgaria are as follows: Edoardo Miroglio with a stake of 50%, Nikolay Kitov with 12.2%, Angel Vassilev with 11.5% and Evgeny Borisov Galabov with 11.15 percent stake.

Europe

Greece’s economy grew in the second quarter in a surprise surge just before the standoff between the government and its creditors forced officials to impose capital controls. Gross domestic product rose 0.8 percent, as it revised up the first quarter to show stagnation. Nominal GDP, which excludes adjustments for price changes, fell 0.7 percent in the period through June. The data came as a shock after economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast a 0.5 percent contraction. Recent reports painted a picture of an economy crippled by months of bailout haggling and question marks over the nation’s future in the euro. The turmoil forced the government to increase its use of emergency funds for banks and shut its financial system. The second-quarter data don’t capture the impact of the capital controls, which came into effect at the end of June. A Greek manufacturing index fell to a record low in July, with companies citing a “generally uncertain operating environment. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, will publish second-quarter data for the currency region on Friday, which are forecast to show 0.4% growth. That will follow national reports from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Spain’s economy grew 1 percent, according to a provisional estimate published on July 30.

America

Microsoft Corp.’s stockpile of offshore profits rose to $108 billion, with a 17 percent increase over the past year as the company continues reaping profits in low-tax foreign jurisdictions. The company crossed the $100 billion mark, making it just the second U.S. corporation -- after General Electric Co. -- to do so, according to a securities filing July 31. Apple Inc. has more cash abroad than Microsoft, but it already has assumed for accounting purposes that it will pay tax on some of the stockpile and thus has less than $70 billion offshore that would affect earnings directly if repatriated. What’s keeping Microsoft’s cash abroad is the U.S. tax code. The company would be required to pay the difference between its foreign taxes and the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate if it brought the money home. To get its $108.3 billion back, Microsoft would have to pay the U.S. $34.5 billion in taxes. That equals a 31.9 percent rate, which suggests that the company has paid as little as 3.1 percent in taxes on its foreign income, because of operations in low-tax Ireland, Singapore and Puerto Rico.

Asia

Chinese steel producers have already cut export prices in response to a lower yuan, industry sources said, providing some of the first evidence of how Beijing's devaluation will help companies in the world's second-biggest economy boost sales. China's steel industry is the world's biggest, but shrinking demand at home has forced many mills to ship record amounts abroad, with some said to be selling at a loss. A weaker yuan will make Chinese steel products even cheaper overseas as Beijing's surprise move to devalue its currency gives the country's exporters leeway to cut prices. Some small Chinese mills had already lowered export prices of steel products like rebar for construction use, by $5-$10 a tonne, sources familiar with the issue said. A private mill in China's top steel producing city of Tangshan had cut export prices of billet - a semi-finished steel product - by $5 to $295 a tonne on a free-on-board basis, according to a senior official in charge of exports. China is by far the world's largest steel consumer and producer, accounting for about half of the world's output. Chinese exports of steel products were 9.73 million tonnes in July, near the record 10.29 million tonnes hit in January. Shipments reached 62.13 million tonnes in January-July, already two-thirds of the record 93.78 million tonnes in 2014.

The village of Radilovo

Radilovo is a village in the south part of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Municipality of Peshtera. Radilovo has ancient history, which began about 5000 years ago. Ancient mounds, old roads, a lot of working equipment, coins and weapons made of stone, copper, bronze and iron were found in the area of the village. It has been known with today’s name since the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century. In his books, Zahari Stoyanov mentions about the energetic participation of the local people in all the organizational and revolutionary activities during the April uprising in 1876. There is an old spring in the surroundings of Radilovo, called Chereshovo kladenche (Cherry well). According to the legend, everyone who is sick and drinks water from the well, and ties a black thread on a near tree, will get better shortly. In 1897 in the village, the Bulgarian journalist and writer Aleko Konstantinov was killed by mistake.