Financial news

The Bulgarian economy will gain the upper hand over the downturn and see real recovery in 2011, UniCredit Group forecast in its latest quarterly overview. Bulgaria will go back to growth rates close to its potential only at the end of 2011, according to the economists quoted by UniCredit Bulbank, the group’s local unit. GDP will shed 1% for 2010 and grow 2.2% in 2011. Bulgaria’s finance minister Simeon Djankov said there are reasons for an upward revision of the economic outlook to 1% growth for 2010.  UniCredit analysts underscore that sustainable recovery involves much more than GDP rise and practically starts when businesses and banks have cleaned up their balance sheets and the economy starts to create jobs.

Just two months since her appointment as Bulgaria’s National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) chief, Zheni Nacheva was accused of misuse of power. She personally provided more funds to selected hospitals, the Prosecutor's Office unveiled and raised a charge against Nacheva. She was elected NHIF Director. Exactly 69 days later the truth emerged on the surface - Mrs Nacheva enhanced the budget of certain hospitals even when she was in charge of the financial department with the NHIF during Sergey Stanishev's term of office. Mrs Nacheva ordered that additional BGN 800 thous be allotted to a private hospital in the town of Sliven. Later, when she became NHIF director she ordered the transfer of BGN 327.3 thous on the monthly limit of private hospital Tokuda and another BGN 511 thous to the Military Medical Academy in Sofia.

	Mineral Fuels, Tailoring Products, Canning, Perfumery and Cosmetics, Furniture, Meat Products, Wine, Wood-processing Industry

Companies

The BGN 500 million of overdue state payments are already available to Bulgarian business as promised by the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. On March 31 the PM declared that in a 15-day term the state would start covering its debts. Every company that has not collected its payments due by March 31 can now file an application at the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) to claim them, it was announced on the BDB’s official website. Dimitar Dimitrov, Executive Director of BDB, confirmed that the agreement between the government and the BDB has already been finalized. BGN 100 million of the sum will be allocated from the bank’s own capital, the rest will be deposited in the state institution by the government. The debts acknowledged by the state will be repaid to companies at a 7% discount interest. Business associations vowed against the discount interest and demanded for an extraordinary meeting of the Council for Tripartite Cooperation that will be held on Thursday

Bulgarian airlines lose EUR 25,000 per regular flight from the suspended air traffic as a result of the volcanic cloud, the Bulgarian Airlines Association said. The losses will increase, since companies have additional costs like airport fees, technical check-ups, fuel and crew payments. Regular international flights provide the bulk of carriers' revenue. Charter flights have not started yet. The Bulgarian Airlines Association (BAA) hopes the country’s air industry will be back to business as usual within three days. While all Bulgarian airports opened on Monday, the bulk of the flights remained cancelled. Over the four days, the losses accumulated by Sofia Airport exceeded EUR 250,000, according to Kichev.

Minister of economy, energy and tourism Traycho Traykov has filed a lawsuit claiming that the state should restore its full control of International Fair of Plovdiv. An analysis of the deal revealed a number of violations, Traykov said. The operator’s majority stake is currently held by Puldin Tourinvest, a company controlled by entrepreneur Georgi Gergov. The businessman crossed the 50% benchmark in the operator’s capitak through the acquisition of shares previously held by a number of physical entity. “An inspection by the ministry established the operator’s privatisation procedure was riddled with violations in commercial and sell-off law,” Traykov explained. He added the company’s capital has been illegally increased twice so that the state lost control. Furthermore, the government has not been paid around BGN 1.4 million in revenue for 2005. Currently the state holds 49.6%, Puldin Turinvest - 50.4%.

Bulgarian blue-blooded car battery maker Monbat will spin off its lucrative lead scrap business, according to a proposal voted by shareholders at yesterday’s extraordinary meeting. The new company, dubbed Monbat Recycling, will group the company’s recycling unit in Montana and Serbian and Romanian facilities that are yet to come online. As part of the restructuring, Monbat will raise its recycling arm’s capital by a non-monetary installment – contribution of real estate, machines and equipment from the lead processing factory in Montana estimated at around BGN 19.5 million. The company will further contribute proceeds from the sale of its two oversees recycling units to Monbat Recycling at a price of slightly over BGN 12 million. 

Bayerische Landesbank, Germany’s second-largest state-owned lender, continues talks with the European Union over a possible sale of its Hungarian subsidiary MKB Bank, said BayernLB’s newly appointed chief executive officer. BayernLB that needed EUR 10 billion in fresh capital from the State of Bavaria is now seeking to improve profitability to attract new owners. The EU executive body is looking into government bailouts on concern the aid will give banks that had difficulties during the financial crisis an unfair advantage in the future. The Commission is to evaluate BayernLB’s restructuring measures. MKB Unionbank is the third largest financial institution in Hungary. In September 2009 it increased its share in the capital of Bulgarian MKB Unionbank to 94%.

Bulgarian producer Ted has taken part in the largest furniture expo in the world - Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, Italy. Ted-Bed is the largest mattresses producer in Bulgaria. Its production facilities have an area of 24 000 square meters, making it one of the three largest mattresses maker in Europe.  The company has a distribution network of 900 stores in Bulgaria, and exports its products to 16 countries. The Bulgarian furniture maker Ted has presented its products at three other major expos in Europe since the beginning of 2010 - in Frankfurt, Koln, and Stockholm.

Europe

Dutch Philips Electronics reported first-quarter operating profit above the most optimistic forecast, driven by its lighting unit and cost cuts, sending shares to a 23-month high. Philips, a bellwether for the technology sector, said on Monday that earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA) rose to 504 million euros from a 74 million euro loss a year ago. That was well above the average forecast of 294 million euros and the top estimate of 383 million euros in a Reuters poll of 19 analysts. First-quarter revenue rose 12 percent to 5.7 billion euros, while net profit was 201 million euros, up from a 57 million euro loss in the same period last year. Philips said it was increasingly confident of delivering an EBITA margin, excluding exceptional items, of 10 percent as early as this year, nearing its original 10-11 percent margin target, which was abandoned in 2008 due to the recession.

America

Wall Street banking giant Citigroup has reported a profit of $4.4bn for the first three months of the year. The result represents a return to profit after the bank lost $7.6bn in the last quarter of last year after repaying government loans. However, the bank said it remained "cautious" given the "uncertain economic recovery". Last week, rival bank JP Morgan reported better-than-expected first quarter profits of $3.3bn. Also last week, Bank of America posted a $3.2bn profit for the period. Citigroup said strong performance from its trading division had helped to drive profits, as had reduced losses from bad loans. The bank is more exposed to consumer loans than many of its major Wall Street rivals, who derive a higher proportion of their income from investment banking operations.

Asia

South Korean steelmakers have urged their Japanese peers to join them in opposing price increases for iron ore and coal, after moves by the world’s leading mining groups to switch to short-term contracts. About 50 government and industry officials from the two countries held their eleventh annual steel meeting in Tokyo where they expressed concerns about iron ore suppliers’ move to drop a 40-year-old annual pricing mechanism in favour of shorter-term deals based on the spot market. Steel mills in Japan, China and Europe have accused the three big iron ore producers – BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Brazil’s Vale  – of abusing their market dominance. The new pricing system will see the commodities’ costs nearly double in the short term, which could raise steel prices by up to a third.

April 20, 1876 - the April Uprising broke out

The April Uprising broke out on April 20, 1876. It was a very well organized mass armed popular action against the opressors. In November 1875, a group of young Bulgarian revolutionaries gathered in the Romanian town of Gyurgevo. They established the so-called Gyurgevo Revolutionary Committee, which decided to start the organization of a big uprising in Bulgaria in the spring of 1876. The most important part was to prepare a united plan for the uprising. The country was divided into four districts, headed by famous revolutionaries – Stefan Stambolov, Il. Dragostinov, St. Zaimov, Panayot Volov, etc. In the end of December, the apostles and their supporters left for Bulgaria. On April 14 a meeting was convened in the region of Oborishte near Panagyurishte, on which a decision was made the uprising would start on May 1. However, the Turkish police uncovered some committees and were about to destroy the whole organization. The apostles decided to act immediately, and the uprising started ahead of schedule – on April 20. The April Uprising was a short one. It ended unsuccessfully being crushed unmercifully by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of men , women and children were cruelly killed, dozens of towns and villages burnt and many districts plundered. The torments and violence gave rise to a protesting movement in the world which became the reason the Bulgarian question to be placed with the utmost insistence on the international political scene.

On that day:  April 20, 1984 – Hristo Prodanov climbed Everest