Nearly 7% increased property values ​​in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the last three months of last year. This is the most drastic percentage increase, according to data from the National Statistical Institute. Compared to the months of January, February and March of 2023, we notice that the curve shows an even more serious jump - by 16%. For the last three months, regional data for Plovdiv show a 4.3% increase in rents. The biggest increase was registered in Varna (+9%), followed by Sofia (+8.6%) and Stara Zagora (+5.2%). A decrease was registered only in Ruse, but it was symbolic - slightly below 1%. During the first three months of this year, nearly 20% more sales of homes were realized in Plovdiv, compared to the last quarter of 2023. 31.8% is the growth of sales of new homes, while in the case of old construction it is 10.4 per 100. However, against this background, a drop of a quarter in the value of sales is reported. For new construction, the value of the transactions decreased by nearly 28.6%, while for the old building stock, the decrease was 20.6%. The highest number of transactions was concluded in Burgas (28.5%), according to NSI data comparing the indicators with the previous three months. Homes in newly built buildings are more sold. The capital also recorded an increase in sales of nearly 25 per 100, most of which (36.3%) were due to new home transactions.

For the fifth time since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Finance has issued government securities. On Monday, government securities for BGN 200 million were placed on the domestic market. Thus, with the new domestic loan, the state has borrowed a total of BGN 1.1 billion since the beginning of the year. The new debt has been incurred since April, i.e. since the coming of the service cabinet. The new government bond issue for BGN 200 million matures in three years and the achieved interest rate is 3.44%. It is higher than the interest rate of the 3-year government securities placed in April (3.01%) and also in May (3.21%). Such an increase in interest, i.e. an increase in the price of the debt borrowed by the state is also observed in the case of 6-year government securities. On June 10, 6-year government securities were placed for BGN 200 million at an interest rate of 3.54%. The increase in the interest rate at which the government borrows (for now only on the domestic market) shows that interest from investors is waning. The uncertain political environment due to the uncertainty of when there will be a regular government or when elections will go again are undoubtedly having an impact. The achieved coverage ratio, which expresses the interest in the issue, is 1.10. For comparison, at the first such issue in April it was high - 2.56, and in May it decreased to 1.19. The state budget for this year was voted with a deficit of BGN 6.2 million (3% of GDP), which means that the government will still take out loans to cover it. At the end of May, the budget came out with a small surplus of BGN 100 million, but it is expected to be in the red in the following months. The Ministry of Finance plans to raise another BGN 2 billion of debt from the domestic market through government bond issues. This is clear from the published emission calendar for June-December 2024. According to Budget 2024, the new liabilities of the treasury may reach up to BGN 11.7 billion.

The Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) is a natural partner of enterprises from the strategic sectors for the state. The newly adopted strategy for the period 2024-2026 envisages the bank, whose principal is the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, to implement support for strategic sectors of the country, including defense and the military industrial complex. The bank presented at a working meeting with the companies, producers of the military industrial complex ("TEREM-HOLDING" EAD, "Arsenal" JSCD, "Vazovsky Machine Buildings" EAD, "Optiks" JSC, "Samel-90" JSC, "Arkus" JSC and others ) opportunities for development, support and financing. BDB has been specialized in servicing foreign trade transactions of companies from the military-industrial complex for more than 15 years and ensuring their payments. As a 100% state-owned financial institution, it is an internationally recognized and acceptable partner in issuing letters of credit, guarantees and counter-guarantees. Last year, two projects were certified under the Law on the Promotion of Investments of Companies from the Defense Industry with a total value of just over BGN 26 million, and currently a BGN 5 million project is in the process of certification, which provides for the opening of 25 working places.

The company Quendoo JSC (which operates the Quendoo platform) received 1 million euros in a financing round, led by the Fund for Capital Investments (800 thousand euros), and the previous investor Vitosha Venture with almost 200 thousand euros was also included in the subsequent investment round. At the beginning of 2021, the Vitosha Venture Partners fund invested 750,000 euros in the company. According to Goryan Varbanov, co-founder and chairman of the company's board of directors, Quendoo's reservation system is used by more than 300 places of accommodation so far, including some of the most famous hotel brands in Bulgaria. Among the clients are Albena, Riviera, VIP hotels, accto and others. The Quendoo company was founded in 2020 as an Ltd by the partners Goryan Varbanov, Tony Valentinov, Georgi Ivanov and the British Christoph Gaiter, all with 25% each. They have been working together in the vacation property business since before the company was founded, and the current platform is the successor to the Arendoo.com booking platform. According to Varbanov, the founders invested over 300,000 euros before the two institutional financings. At the beginning of this year, the company was converted into a joint-stock company, and after the investments, according to data from the Commercial Register, the four founders own almost 71% of the capital. The valuation of the company based on the invested funds is slightly over BGN 11.7 million. The company's revenues for 2023 are BGN 110 thousand. The capital investment fund finances Bulgarian companies through equity investments of up to BGN 5 million. FKI's portfolio includes the technological companies Eurotrust, Barin Sports, UPASS and IPS, the smart bicycles Econic One, as well as the manufacturers of children's shoes Kolev and Kolev, noise insulation solutions - Decibel, and accessories for paragliding - Fly the Earth. The fund has also realized its first successful exit - from the investment in the furniture company M2 PROM, which in 2022 was acquired by the French giant in the equipment of commercial spaces "Lindera Group". forbesbulgaria

"ImVenture III" KDA, in which "ImPuls Rastezh" JSC has a direct participation of more than 8%, participated in a financing round of "Tiger Technologies" JSC. The investment of "ImVenture III" KDA is in the amount of 400 thousand euros in the form of a convertible loan. The round has a total amount of nearly 2 million euros and is carried out jointly with angel investors. The raised resource will be used to support the company's research and development activities, as well as provide funds for attracting new clients to a Series A financing round. "ImVenture III" KDA is the third investment fund with the participation of "ImPuls Growth" JSC after "ImVenture I" KDA and "ImVenture II" KDA., and this is his first investment. "ImVenture III" KDA is aimed at investing funds in Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek and related to the region and the diaspora foreign small and medium-sized enterprises and those with medium capitalization. Tiger Technologies JSC is a company specializing in data management and storage solutions. The firm optimizes data storage infrastructures in the media and entertainment industries, video surveillance, healthcare, enterprise IT and more. Among the company's clients are Hamad International Airport (Qatar), City of Denver (US), Harry Reid International Airport (US), HSBC Bank Hong Kong, Gulf Bank Kuwait, UK Police Force (City of London, Nottingham, Greater Manchester, Leicester , Sussex), Yokogawa Electric (Global), Curry & Brown (Hong Kong) and NHS (UK).

At the public offering of shares from the capital increase of "Smart Organic", which lasted between June 3 and June 21, all the offered shares of the company were subscribed. 1,030,999 new shares from the increase of the Company's capital were subscribed. Of these, 51.25% were subscribed by institutional and 48.75% by private investors. As a result of the Offering and subscription of new shares from the increase in the Company's capital, an amount of 19,588,981 (nineteen million five hundred eighty-eight thousand nine hundred eighty-one) BGN was raised. As a result of the concluded transactions for the sale of shares and rights, there has been a change in the direct ownership of the shareholding of the majority shareholder in the capital of "Smart Organic" JSC - Yani Dragov - from 96.36% to 93.93%.

The company for the production of rechargeable batteries and accumulators "Monbat" JSC - Sofia will not pay a dividend from the net profit for the year 2023. The decision of the regular general meeting of shareholders is that the profit of "Monbat" for last year, in the amount of BGN 2,907,603.41, should remain in the "Undistributed profit from previous years" fund. In the last three years, the company distributed its net profit to its shareholders. "Monbat" paid a dividend from the profit for 2022 in the total amount of BGN 4,000,000 or per share gross of BGN 0.10263. The dividend from the positive financial result for 2021 was a total of BGN 5,500,000, and each shareholder received BGN 0.141025. From the net profit for 2020, the holders of such shares distributed the sum of BGN 7,000,000, and for each share they received a gross of BGN 0.17948.

The general meeting of shareholders of TPP "Bobov Dol" JSC distributed a cash dividend from its net profit for last year in the total amount of BGN 1,741,008. The gross dividend per share is BGN 0.20. Only for individual shareholders (after deducting the due tax) the amount is BGN 0.19. This is the third consecutive dividend that the company has paid out. The rest of the profit, in the amount of BGN 10,407,356, will be allocated to retained earnings from previous years. The company ended last year with a net profit of BGN 12,148,363.66. From the net profit for the year 2022, a cash dividend was paid in the total amount of BGN 1,305,756 or BGN 0.15 per gross share. An amount of BGN 870,504 was distributed to the shareholders, or BGN 0.10 of the positive financial result for 2021.

Bulgaria registered the highest average price on the energy exchange for base load not only for this year, but also since the crisis in 2022 - BGN 397.85 per MWh. This value for June 25 is twice the average price of electricity for the month and is completely atypical for this time of the year. Such high prices are found in the whole region of South-Eastern Europe, but not in Greece. Which is also strange - usually the highest prices are there. The reason for the extraordinary increase in the price of electricity in the otherwise stable market in recent months is more external than internal. The entire Balkan region is unbalanced due to interruptions and breakdowns in cross-border transmission between Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Montenegro, whose markets are well connected to each other. The breakdown in the system appears to have been caused by the failure of a large 400-kilovolt transmission line between Montenegro and Bosnia, which then shifted the load to all countries in the region, but most notably Croatia. From there, the common EU market has transferred the crisis to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, where, it seems, things with the supply of energy have stabilized, and that is exactly why Greece is not affected so much. According to energy expert Francesco Sassi, the problem with the cross-border trading of electricity has been going on for several days, and was felt mostly between Albania and Greece. One of the reasons for its growth is the very strong heat wave that covered the Balkans in recent days and led to constant positive anomalies of 5 - 10 degrees in different countries, which increase the need for cooling and interfere with the transmission networks themselves. What is happening completely confuses the integrated European market, which also includes countries that are outside the EU, but are dependent. This is also evident on the exchange itself, where the price in Croatia jumped by 141% on a daily basis to BGN 565.47 per MWh, which is the highest price on the continent. The situation is similar in Hungary, which is in the middle of these processes. At the same time, in Bulgaria, production has been hit by the absence of one of the two nuclear units in Kozloduy due to an accident, as well as by the large domestic consumption, of the order of 4,500 megawatts, again related to the need for cooling. In fact, this is only the third such blackout in Southeast Europe. The first was from 1976, when parts of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland were affected. The second blackout occurred on September 28, 2003, when all of Italy was left without electricity. The situation in the Western Balkans is likely to be resolved in the next few days, but it shows that the hot weather and lack of good connectivity in Southeast Europe can easily unbalance the market. Moreover, the hydropower plants are less and less able to work in July and August due to a lack of quality rainfall. Since the beginning of the year, prices on the European market have been calmer, and in Bulgaria in the spring they even reached average levels of around BGN 100/mWh in a certain period. That changed as soon as the warmer weather started and contributed to the imbalance in the system, where solar farms produce a lot at lunchtime but lack it in the evening and the price skyrockets. Interestingly, the higher prices open up a new opportunity for coal plants to operate in the evening, although at the moment this is not happening. At prices of over BGN 300/mWh, they can operate quite profitably and export. The expectations are that in Eastern Europe the instability and the jump in prices will remain.

Legislative gridlock in Washington threatens to spark a global tax war as countries brace for the likely failure of a landmark deal overhauling the taxation of large multinationals. Negotiators from more than 140 countries were expected to come up this week with an agreed text brokered by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) on the taxation of digital companies, or so-called "first pillar reforms," ​​the FT wrote. The deadline for this is June 30. That would effectively start the long-delayed process of ratifying the deal, which would redistribute about $200 billion in annual profits to the countries where the multinationals do business. The concern among diplomats and analysts is that the final package of reforms, first agreed in 2021 and backed by the OECD, will be stillborn anyway, as the global deal requires US ratification to take effect. That's nearly impossible to happen amid the political divide in Washington. The international tax deal, which is at odds with the US Republican position, would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to pass. According to a negotiator, this dooms the deal. Negotiating countries have signed a moratorium in 2021 banning the introduction of digital services taxes while international negotiations continue. That agreement expires at the end of June. The OECD is preparing to circulate a text of the agreement ready for signature on Wednesday evening, according to documents obtained by the FT. To take effect, the deal will need approval from the legislatures of at least 30 countries, where at least 60 percent of the roughly 100 affected companies are headquartered. This requirement cannot be met without the participation of the United States. The situation is likely to spark a tax war as countries back out of global talks and impose their own taxes despite long-standing threats of retaliatory measures from the US. Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, supports OECD efforts for global tax reform, but recently made it clear that the US will not sign the international treaty without "firm agreement" on mandatory simplification of transfer pricing rules. Canada recently passed digital services tax legislation for big business. Kenya and New Zealand have also begun the process of introducing such taxes. These will mostly apply to US-based technology companies. Barbara Angus, EY's head of global tax policy, said companies had asked the firm to consider how countries could introduce such levies to better prepare for a potentially "chaotic" environment.

India's sunflower oil imports hit a record 500,000 metric tons in June as competition between top suppliers Russia and Ukraine made it cheaper than soybean oil and palm oil, two of the product's top buyers and a customs official said. Higher purchases of sunflower oil from the world's largest importer of vegetable oils will help reduce stocks in the Black Sea region and boost prices. A few weeks ago, crude sunflower oil was available at $940 a metric ton including cost, insurance and freight (CIF) for June delivery, while soybean oil and palm oil were available at around $1,015 and $950 a ton respectively, dealers said. Sunflower oil typically commands a premium of more than $100 a tonne over soybean oil and palm oil, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at edible oil trader and broker GGN Research. Russia and Ukraine, as well as another major supplier, Argentina, were competing aggressively and offering sunflower oil at a lower price than other oils, said another buyer based in the city of Hyderabad. It has reduced purchases of palm oil and soybean oil to make room for sunflower oil. The currencies of Russia and Ukraine have depreciated since the start of the war in February 2022, allowing them to offer their output at competitive prices in dollar terms, the buyer said. The two countries provide more than 70 percent of the world's oil supply. About 320,000 metric tonnes of sunflower oil have been unloaded at various Indian ports so far this month, said a customs official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. India bought an average of 250,000 tonnes of sunflower oil every month in the last marketing year, mostly from the Black Sea region. The industry will need time to refine and distribute the 500,000 tonnes of oil imported in June, which will reduce imports in July, the Hyderabad city-based buyer said. In January last year, India imported a record 461,458 tonnes of sunflower oil. India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and imports soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil and the United States.