Financial news

Bulgaria has reopened its EUR 850-million government bonds due in 2035 and sold an additional EUR 50 million to a global investor. "The debt operation is in line with the mid-term global bonds programme and will not exceed the debt ceiling for 2015," the ministry said in a statement. The Balkan country sold EUR 3.1 billion of government bonds in its biggest ever sale in March, including the 850-million euros in the 20-year bond with a yield of 3.26 percent. The yield of the EUR 50 million it sold on Nov 13 was 3.987 percent, the ministry said, in line with the yield of 20-year Eurobonds sold by Romania last month. With Bulgaria's public debt at 27 percent of national output it is still one of the European Union's least indebted member states.

Bulgaria and Greece will sign a final investment decision (FID) on the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) on December 10. The IGB Pipeline, which will be 182 km long, will link the northeastern Greek city of Komotini with Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. It is estimated to cost EUR 220 million. The pipeline will carry 3 billion cu m of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a maximum capacity of 5 billion cu m per year. It will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe through Greece. Last month Kostas Karayannakos, DEPA division head international projects and gas supply, said the construction of the IGB Pipeline will start in the beginning of 2016, and is supposed to be completed by 2018. IGI Poseidon, a 50/50 partnership between DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation of Greece, and Italy's Edison will partner Bulgaria on the project. The pipeline is an essential part of a vertical gas corridor connecting Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, which the three countries have committed to develop.

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Concessions

The Transport Ministry announced a public tender for the preparation of concession analyzes - legal, technical, financial, economic and environmental, in conjunction with the concession of the terminal Zimovnik - Rousse. The site is part of the Port of Rousse. The estimated value of the contract is BGN 66 thousand. The Ministry expects at least three versions of financial-economic analysis, which are to provide for the necessary investments by the concessionaire and without compensation. Legal analysis must provide the framework for the future concession. Contractor shall develop three versions of the technical analysis and project justification of the concession, the concession contract and the documentation for participation in the open procedure for the tender for the concession of the site.

Companies

Contrary to expectations of a quick deal, the tender to sell Vivacom in London continued nearly 16 hours. The telecom is now property of businessman Spas Rusev. He won the tender for the shares with an offer of EUR 330 mln. The sale was necessary as the former shareholders failed to repay a bridge loan of EUR 150 mln. from the Russian bank VTB Capital. The loan had to be repaid by May 22, 2015. The bank waited six months after the deadline. At the end of October VTB Capital announced that they would sell the telecom BTC, operating under the brand name "Vivacom". Spas Rusev and Greek Olympia Group, property of Greek businessman Panos Germanos, were the only candidates in the last stage. The State Deposit Insurance Fund is also monitoring the transaction as the institution expects the amount of EUR 150 mln. back. The money was transferred from Corpbank to the telecom. It is believed this money was used to buy out Tsvetan Vasilev's share in the company.

Canada-based Dundee Precious Metals received approval for the final detailed development plan (DDP) of its Krumovgrad gold mine project in Bulgaria. With the appeal process having expired on November 19, the DDP is now fully in force. "This is a critical step in the construction permitting process as it is a prerequisite to allowing construction of the project to proceed," the company's president and CEO Rick Howes said. The next step in the approvals process is for the Executive Forestry Agency to approve the final re-designation of the land from forestry land to industrial land. Dundee Precious Metals is targeting land re-designation and purchase in the first half of 2016, the issuing of a construction permit by the end of the second quarter of 2016, and commencement of construction in the second half of 2016. The proposed mine site is located approximately 3 km south of the town of Krumovgrad in southeastern Bulgaria. The project plan contemplates the construction of an open pit mining operation comprised of a process plant which will employ conventional crushing, grinding and flotation processing for gold extraction. The plant is designed to treat up to 840,000 tonnes of ore containing 85,700 ounces of gold per annum over an eight year mine life. The capital cost to complete the construction of the mine and associated facilities, excluding sunk costs, is currently estimated at USD 164.1 million.

DELATEK, new software company with Canadian participation, launched on the Bulgarian IT market. The company specializes in developing products and services for secure communication in the Sofia office of the company now employs 15 people, and in the coming months will be hired 40 more people to 8 positions. DELATEK is based entirely in Bulgaria and is part of a group of Canadian high-tech companies working in the field of software development, mobile technology, cybersecurity, secure communication, cloud services and hosting, web development, SEO and digital marketing. The main focus of DELATEK is to develop and launch innovative products and services for secure communication, whose sales in different markets take care of other group companies, such as Secure Group. In 2016, the company expects its staff exceeds 50 people.

Google is buying enterprise development platform startup bebop and making its founder, Diane Greene head of Google’s enterprise cloud business. Even more interestingly Bulgarian manager Bogomil Balkansky participates in the startup. Greene boasts an impressive background as one one of the co-founders and former CEO at VMware. Her company had been operating in stealth up until today’s acquisition. Greene will run a new integrated enterprise cloud businesses, that will combine Google for Work, Cloud Platform, and Google Apps with a new consolidated product, engineering, marketing and sales team that was missing before this. The price of the transaction is not disclosed. Bogomil Balkansky was chief senior vice president of virtualization in VMware.and was responsible for the development of cloud infrastructure. He is attracted in the startup after its founding in 2013 by Greene. He occupies a key position in Bebop, as he holds stake in the young company. Greene has been a member of the Google board of directors for the past three years and will remain in that role. The entire bebop team will join Google as part of the acquisition as soon as it has been completed.

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Europe

The parliament in Greece passed a bill to pave the way for its next installment of loans. Foreign lenders required Greece to pass the austerity measures before delivering 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) for a bailout and 10 billion euros to recapitalize the country's banks. In a roll call vote, 153 members of the left-right coalition voted in favor of the bill and 137 legislators voted against it. Ten lawmakers were absent, according to the parliament's bureau. The austerity package requires that debtors who default on their loans also lose their homes, with protections existing for only around 25 percent of those who are socially disadvantaged. In addition, the bill introduced special taxes on gambling and Greek wine - at 15 cents per liter. "I'd like to see how you'll sleep at night when the first homeowner loses his house," conservative opposition leader Evangelos Meimarakis said to the lawmakers. "Mr. Tsipras promised to protect primary homes. It was a lie to get people to vote for him."

America

President-elect Mauricio Macri's promises to revitalize Argentina's sagging economy with free-market reforms and improve strained relations with the United States resonated with voters, carrying him to a historic win that ended 12 years of often-conflictive rule by President Cristina Fernandez and her late husband. But when the business-friendly opposition candidate takes office Dec. 10, he will inherit a country with around 30 percent inflation, near-zero economic growth and entrenched government social spending that private economists warn is not sustainable. He also lacks majorities in either chamber of Congress to pass his deep reforms. "Macri will begin his mandate in a difficult political position," wrote Daniel Kerner from the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. "He will have to make difficult economic adjustments and face serious political constraints." With 98 percent of the vote counted from Sunday's election, Macri had 51.5 percent support compared to 48.5 percent for ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli, Fernandez's hand-chosen successor. Scioli conceded defeat and Macri claimed victory.

Asia

WeBank, the online finance operation that is owned and operated by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, will seek to raise as much as $1 billion in an effort to boost its lending business and also its ancillary financial services. The newswire cited an unnamed person “familiar with the matter” as the source of the information. WeBank is a relative newcomer on the lending scene, as it began operations at the beginning of 2015, and plans are taking shape for discussions to begin with a range of investors, most of them within private equity firms, across the next several months. Reuters said that both WeBank and its parent company declined to speculate or offer comment on the fundraising. If past is prologue, Tencent and its eCommerce peer and rival, Alibaba, have placed the bulk of their lending activities with retail clients, bringing them toward online banking. Yet, as Reuters noted, thus far those two companies have been unable to provide at least some financial services that are regulated to the point where they have to actually be done in person, at a physical location.

St. Alexander Nevski Feast

On November 23 the Orthodox church celebrates the day of St. Alexander Nevski (1220-1263). Born in 1220, he lived in a time, when Russia was occupied by the Tartars and was elected prince of Novogorod. During his ruling, the Swede king with his numerous army took the field against Novogorod. Prince Alexander took up the defence of the town, and the two arimes met at the confluence of the Ithara and Neva Rivers. Alexander defeated the Swedish army, and from this victory, he earned the name "Nevski." Later on, the prince was recognized by the Tartar khan as prince of Vladimir, Kiev, and Novogorod. At that time, he turned into the single defendant of the Orthodox religion and of the people against the Tartars. St. Alexander ruled for ten years and throughout his ruling he did a lot of good to the people and the Church. In the end of his life, he became a monk. November 23 is the holiday of the biggest Orthodox cathedral on the Balkans, located in Sofia and named after the saint – St. Alexander Nevski cathedral. November 23 is also the name day of all people called Alexander, Alexandra, Sasho, Sashka, Tzanko (the name Alexander is of ancient Greek origin, and means “protector of men”).