Financial news

Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania are among the seven countries that do not meet all the criteria for Eurozone entry, the European Central Bank (ECB) said. "The seven countries under review (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Sweden) comply with most of the quantitative economic criteria, but none of them fulfils all of the obligations laid down in the Treaty, including the legal convergence criteria," the ECB said in its convergence report. Regarding the fiscal criteria, only Croatia is subject to an EU Council decision on the existence of an excessive deficit. According to the report, incompatibilities persist regarding central bank independence, in particular central banks' institutional and financial independence, as well as personal independence. "In addition, in all countries under review, with the exception of Croatia, there are incompatibilities as regards the prohibition of monetary financing and the legal integration of the respective central banks into the еurosystem," ECB added. In the long-term, Bulgaria faces medium risks to fiscal sustainability, partially because of the expected increase in age-related public expenditure on medical care and long-term health care.

Bulgaria registered an economic growth of 2.9 % in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter of 2015. The GDP exceeded BGN 18.5 B, amounting to BGN 2589 per capita. This represented an increase of 0.7 % compared to the last quarter of 2015. In the first quarter of 2016, Gross Value Added (GVA) exceeded BGN 15.8 B, which represented an increase of 2.6 % compared to the same quarter last year. Compared to the first quarter of 2015, final consumption increased by 2.1 %, the exports of goods and services increased by 0.3 %, while the imports dropped by 1.3 %. In the first quarter, the relative share of the agricultural sector in the value added of the economy decreased by 0.3 percentage points compared to the same quarter of 2015, dropping to a level of 2.8 %. The industrial sector decreased its relative share by 0.2 percentage points and reached a level of 29.4 %. The services sector increased its relative share from 67.3 % in the first quarter of 2015 to 67.8 % in the same quarter of this year. Investments in the first quarter amounted to 16.3 % of GDP and the trade balance of goods and services was positive.

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Companies

Bulgaria is in talks with neighbouring Greece for potential gas supplies via a reverse flow through the existing Kulata-Sidirokastro gas grid interconnector, in line with its goal to diversify gas sources, the chairman of the country's energy regulator said. "Negotiations with the Greek side about the capacity and the pipeline's usage potential are ongoing," said Ivan Ivanov. The negotiations should end in a month, when more details about the possible gas supply agreement will be available. The gas that Bulgaria may get will most likely come from the Revithoussa LNG terminal, and will be the first non-Russian gas flowing into the country, Ivanov said. Revithoussa is the only LNG terminal in Greece. It gets gas from Algeria's state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach. The Kulata-Sidirokastro interconnector was upgraded at the beginning of 2014 so that it is able to flow gas in both directions, allowing the two countries to exchange supplies.

Best Success Services Bulgaria, owned by Cyprus-registered Best Success Services, has completed the acquisition of Pechatnitsa Sofia, one of the biggest printing houses in the country,. The seller of the printing house, Media Group Bulgaria, will now focus on its publishing business, development of online products and new media projects. Media Group Bulgaria's divestiture is part of a restructuring plan and repayment of debts to the state. The value of the deal was not disclosed. According to the Commercial register, Gergana Danova is the chairman of the Best Success Services Bulgaria. Since 2011, she is also a CEO of Interactive Media Services (IMS), which operates TV channels The Voice and Magic, radio stations Vitosha and Vesselina, and newspaper Novinar. IMS also operates on the Serbian, Macedonian and Latvian markets.

One of the Sofia stores of Bulgarian furniture retail chain Aron has been put for sale by a private enforcement agent at a starting price of BGN 8.1 million, a public sale notice showed. The auction was organised in relation to overdue debts of Aron Group, which is associated with the operator of furniture store chain Aron S, the notice indicates. The auction includes a land plot of 3,000 sq m and the retailer's building, which has an area of 1,662 sq m. The results of the sale will be announced on July 7. According to the latest available official data, Aron Group turned to a net profit of BGN 111,000 in 2014 from a net loss of 173,000 in the previous year.

General meeting of one of the largest industrial enterprises in Bulgaria - Solvay Sodi Devnya, decided to distribute a dividend totaling BGN 175.806 million or BGN 27.70 per share before tax, payable to shareholders on July 6, 2016. Shareholder individuals will receive the dividend through the branches of Societe Generale Expressbank in the country from July 6 to December 31, 2016 adopted annual financial statements showing profit of the company before taxes last year amounted to BGN 175.842 million. In 2015 was inaugurated the new vacuum-absorption distillery, which reduces the consumption of steam at soda production, of solid fuel and CO2 emissions. The largest factory in Europe produces synthetic soda ash with a capacity of 1.5 mln tons per year. Solvay Sodi was privatized in 1997, as major shareholders are international chemical group Solvay (75%) and Turkish Sisecam (25%).

Founded in 2014 Еnchencv develops the unanimous platform Еnchencv for generation of CVs. It succeeds in attracting BGN 400 thousand investments from Eleven. Now it has almost completed negotiations for new BGN 1 million funding. Simple idea behind the business of the company is that preparation of CV is boring to anyone who needs to do it and on the other frequently due to iinexperience people do not know what to include in it and how to present info in the right way. And last but not least for companies is infinitely depressing to read the same specific and non-content summaries in black and white format. Еnchencv works with a software that let users generate their own CV, as they complete on-line form. Among useful tools are additional questions that the software asks to make data maximum concrete. The first investment in the company is in its very founding in May 2014 when Eleven invested EUR 25 thousand for its standard policy to get 8% of the company. Two waves of funding follow-in the end of the same year and in 2015, assessed at a total of EUR 175 thousand.

Europe

Spanish industry remained in growth territory on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, coming in slightly lower compared with the previous month, official data revealed. Madrid - Spanish industrial production slightly decelerated its pace of growth on an annual seasonally adjusted basis in April, official data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) showed. Industrial output posted a 2.7% increase in the fourth month of the year on a seasonally adjusted year-on-year basis, revealing a slightly stronger reading compared with markets expectation of a soft deceleration in output to 2.5% for the reported month. On a non-calendar-adjusted basis, industrial output rebounded 8.9% on an annual basis in April, after a revised reading of -1.6% seen in March. Industrial production shows the volume of production in the Spanish industrial sector, including manufacturing, mining and utilities, and is an important macroeconomic indicator. The indicator has seen volatile results since the beginning of the year, with two positive and one negative reading. On the other hand, the latest jobs data provided more reason to cheer, with the number of registered unemployed people in May falling again and showing a healthier labor market.

America

Daimler Trucks announced plans to layoff 1,240 employees at a trio of factories throughout the U.S. and an additional one in Mexico, the company said on Monday. The layoffs come several weeks after the German auto company lowered its full-year financial forecasts due to slowing sales. Of the job eliminations, approximately 800 positions will be terminated at two facilities in Gaston County, North Carolina. Daimler, which said last month that it expects full-year operating profit to be considerably below last year's revenues, anticipates a decline of 15% in medium and heavy duty trucks this year. Daimler expects to layoff 600 Freightliner workers at a plant in Mount Holly, N.C., along with another 200 at another facility in Gastonia. Currently, there are approximately 1,450 employees at the plan in Mount Holly. The lay-offs are scheduled to occur from June 24 through July 1. "These workforce adjustments are expected to be temporary and workers will have first rights to be recalled when production is able to sustain a higher build rate," the company said in a statement.

Asia

The total volume of China's foreign exchange reserves fell to $3.19 trillion in May, booking the biggest monthly fall since February, a fresh report from the People's Bank of China (PBoC), the country's central bank, showed. China's foreign exchange reserves fell to the lowest level in 38 months in May, also coming in slightly lower than the market's median forecast that had predicted reserves to fall as low as $3.20 trillion. The ongoing fall in foreign currency reserves reflects the increased activity of China's monetary authorities, which supported market liquidity throughout the year in an effort to keep the currency steady. The PBoC also declared its readiness to step into the market with foreign exchange intervention to support its currency, the renminbi, several times. Foreign exchange reserves are generally foreign assets held by China's central bank. These reserves include monetary gold, specific currencies like special drawing rights - the currency of the International Monetary Fund - and securities denominated in foreign currencies like treasury bills, government bonds, corporate bonds and equities and foreign currency loans.

Zlata Mogila

Zlata Mogila is a funeral mound, located close to the village of Sadievo, eastern from the town of Nova Zagora. It is one of the biggest in the region. The pit with laid there two hearses – one two-wheeled and one four-wheeled, along with the horses, were found after treasure hunters intervention. The hearses were decorated with hemstitch bronze applications and edgings. One of the shields and the iron rims and naves of the wheels are entirely kept. The grave, which could be related to the funerals of the horses and heares, is situated in the nearby funeral mound. The finding is dated to 1st-2nd century and has belonged to a rich Thracian man who used to live in the region. The mound is located 8 km eastern from Nova Zagora, 1 km away from the road Sofia-Bourgas.

On that day:  Krakra Fortress