Financial news

Slight increase in interest rates on deposits of households is recorded in September by Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). The average interest rate on deposits in BGN is 1.51% and on those in EUR - 1.24 per cent. The increase as compared to August is assessed at 0.04 percentage points. AS compared with last September, however, interest rates continue to fall. The decrease for BGN deposits is 1.24 percentage points and for the euro-denominated - by 1.32 percentage points. Interest rates on corporate deposits in BGN decreased by 0.04 percentage points in September as compared to August, while euro-denominated registered growth by 0.02 percentage points. As compared with last September, the average rate on deposits of companies fell by 1.27 percentage points to 0.65% and on those in EUR - by 0.68 percentage points to 0.80 percent.

Number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria in September 2015 was 1,055,900 or 4.7% under the level of September 2014. A decrease was registered in the trips by all observed purposes: with professional purpose - by 17.7%, with holiday and recreation purpose - by 4.1% and with other purposes - by 0.2%. The share of visits of ЕU citizens was 63.6% of the total number of foreigners’ visits to Bulgaria in September 2015 or by 5.4% less in comparison with the same month of the previous year. A decrease was registered in the visits of the citizens of Greece - by 24.7%, the Netherlands - by 12.7%, Germany – by 11.1%, the United Kingdom - by 3.5%, Hungary - by 0.8%, and etc. At the same time increased the visits from Belgium - by 9.1%, France - by 7.8%, Italy - by 5.9%, Poland - by 5.3%, Spain - by 5.2%, Austria - by 3.1%, and etc. In September 2015, the predominant share of the visits with holiday and recreation purpose was 46.9%. The visits with holiday and recreation purpose formed 98.6% of the arrivals from Israel and 89.1% - from Russian Federation. The visits with professional purpose were 42.6% of the arrivals from France, as with other purposes were 72.4% of all arrivals from Romania and 68.0% - from Turkey.

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Companies

British Ocado Technology, a company that stands after technological solutions of the largest online trader for victuals in the world Ocado.com announced that is to crate its own team in Bulgaria in partnership with the company with Bulgarian participation Questers. Jointly the two companies will open 200 new jobs for experienced software specialist and engineers. That will allow the British giant with annual revenues of nearly GBP 1 billion to further extend its technological department. Ocado Technology develops all technological solutions of the company separately: systems for control and alert in real time, robotics, vision systems, machine learning, simulation, analysis and data processing, routing systems and big data. The costs for such a team to Sofia for a two-year period is assessed to about BGN 24-25 million.

EMC Corporation and VMware joined their cloud solutions with those of the company Virtustream. New cloud services for business will be presented under the brand Virtustream. Virtustream is expected to generate several hundred million dollars in revenue in 2016, focusing on cloud services for corporate clients. According to both companies prospect’s revenue to grow to several billion in the coming years. Virtustream will provide a full range of services for managing local infrastructure and its IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) platform for business. This will allow customers to move their applications to the cloud. The new business will include cloud solutions that offer EMC Information Infrastructure, VCE, Virtustream and VMware. Among them are VMware vCloud Air, VCE Cloud Managed Services, Virtustream’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and solutions, EMC storage and objects – Storage Managed Services. One of the leading services platform vCloud Air – DR2Cloud, was developed at the Center for development on VMware in Bulgaria. In this respect, the Bulgarian team is expected to have close cooperation with Virtustream and in the future.

ePay presented a platform for facilitated mobile payment. The service is accessible for all credit and debit cards with no additional charge to users. The technology has been working for about three months in the company for mobile order of taxis named Taxistars. ePay One Touch is similar to mobile payment services to international giants Google and Apple. The application connects to all electronic payment systems. An additional plus for the business is the elimination of the need to purchase hardware and POS terminals. Payment online has increased more than twice in the last three years, but only from 2014 onwards contactless payments has increased to 57%.

Bulgarian drug maker Sopharma raised its stake in medical products maker Medica to 66.72%. On October 22, Sopharma acquired 3.08 million Medica shares. The value of the deal was not disclosed. On Friday Doverie United Holding said its unit Doverie Capital sold 3.08 million Medica shares, equal to a 30.59% stake in the company. After the deal, Doverie Capital's stake in Medica fell to 29.61%. In March, Sopharma obtained the competition regulator's approval to take over Medica. At the time, the regulator said Sopharma's mid-term plans include a possible absorption of Medica within the next three or five years.

VTB Capital, the investment-banking arm of Russia's second-largest bank VTB , has hired a global advisory firm to help it with an immediate sale of Bulgaria's largest telecoms operator Vivacom. VTB Capital is able to launch the sale process as it is a facility and security agent for EUR 150 million bridge financing loan that was given to InterV, a Luxembourg-based indirect holding company of Vivacom, and on which a payment default occurred in May. The loan was secured by 100 percent of the shares of InterV, so the shares went to VTB Capital after the default. VTB Capital did not name the advisory firm it had hired to help with the immediate sale.

By the end of the year comprehensive financial analysis about the possibility of the abandoned airport in Stara Zagora to start work again should be drawn up. Stara Zagora Airport JSC is exclusive state property. The last time transport aircrafts landed on it was 15 years ago. For some time it was used by the Air Force. Currently the airport is maintain by the military that have warehouses there. The site allows extension of the runway so that it can accept heavy machinery. The idea is cargo hub to be built in the place. Speedy’s facility is being built in close proximity.

Europe

Russia and Serbia signed a number of documents following the Russian-Serbian meeting led by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Dmitry Medvedev, and Aleksandar Vucic. Thus, the representatives of the two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding between the governments in the area of economic cooperation, investment and joint projects. Simultaneously, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Defence of Serbia. The two sides have also signed an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of intellectual property in the framework of bilateral military and technical cooperation and a memorandum of strategic partnership between the company RZD International and Infrastructure Railways of Serbia. The Russian Federal Migration Service and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Federal Drug Control Service of Russia the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Serbia, the Russian Business Council for Cooperation with Serbia and the Serbian Business Council Cooperation with Russia have also concluded memorandums of cooperation following the talks.

America

U.S. government bond yields fell on Monday as investors expect the Federal Reserve to keep its benchmark short-term interest rates near zero later this week. In late-afternoon trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 2.058%, compared with 2.081% Friday. Yields fall as bond prices rise. The Fed starts its two-day policy meeting Tuesday amid a muddy global growth outlook and subdued inflation. Fed officials have persistently warned that a rate increase before the end of the year remains on the table. But many investors believe that the central bank will likely wait until early 2016 to act. “The Fed should remain cautious and reiterate its data dependency,” said Sean Simko, head of fixed-income management at SEI Investments, which oversees $262 billion. “Unless the Fed throws a curve ball to the markets, I don’t see a driver pushing yields higher in the near term.” Higher interest rates from the Fed make newly issued bonds more attractive to buy and shrink the value of outstanding bonds. But U.S. bond yields have remained stubbornly low, reflecting investors’ expectations of sluggish global growth, contained inflation and a cautious Fed in shifting into tightening policy. The 10-year Treasury yield, a bedrock for global finance, has fallen from this year’s peak of 2.5% set in June. The yield was 2.173% at the end of last year.

Asia

Asian markets traded mostly lower Wednesday, with losses in energy plays amid fresh oil-price declines counterbalanced by gains in Japan shares as traders hoped for more stimulus from the central bank. Traders around the region are likely to be hesitant ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting set to end on Thursday. Markets have been jumpy in recent months, awaiting the Fed's first interest rate hike in nine years. While most analysts don't expect that hike to come at this meeting, they'll be parsing the Fed's statement for cues on when it will move. Oil shares around the region lost ground after crude oil futures settled at a two-month low of $43.20 a barrel, down 78 cents, in U.S. trade overnight. In Asia trade midday, WTI edged up 8 cents to $43.28. Japan's Inpex shed 1.1 percent. In Hong Kong, CNOOC shed 1.4 percent and Sinopec fell 2.3 percent. Japan shares were higher, with the Nikkei index tacking on 0.54 percent. Traders there are likely to be hesitant as they await the outcome of the Bank of Japan's meeting at the end of the week. Many analysts expect the central bank to introduce further stimulus, which is likely to boost asset prices

Central Sofia Synagogue

Situated in the very heart of the Bulgarian capital, the Central Sofia Synagogue is the third largest synagogue in Europe, next to the synagogues in Budapest and Amsterdam. Designed by the Austrian architect, Grunanger, the synagogue was built to resemble a former synagogue in Vienna, which was destroyed by the Nazis. Building began in 1905 and the official opening took place in 1909, in the presence of king Ferdinand and queen Eleonora. The building is a square block of Spanish-Moorish design, with a large central dome lit by a showpiece 2250kg chandelier (the biggest in Bulgaria). The outer walls are ornamented with floral and geometric motifs. The building was restored by Bulgarian emigrants in Haifa (Israel), in the 1990s. Originally intended to accommodate 1300 worshippers, nowadays services in one of the most beautiful architectural monuments in Sofia are only attended by 50 or 60 people.

On that day:  The Buinovo Gorge Toplika Mineral Springs