Financial news

The Bulgarian government will propose a new anti-crisis measure to avoid a rise in value added tax. That was announced at Monday’s meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation. The cut in the state administration should be increased from 10% to 20% to avoid raising VAT to 25% from the current 20%, explained Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov. In addition, an analysis will be made to establish what reductions each ministry and unit can make. Thus the Finance Ministry commits to no tax rises by the end of the year. Meanwhile, tobacco producers will be paid their grants of BGN 116 million and BGN 220 million will be allocated to the National Health Insurance Fund to strengthen its budget. The government has planned also funds for social needs and large infrastructure projects.

According to finance minister Simeon Djankov, there is a surplus to the state budget for last month and the perspective for May is even brighter. The gap in the budget for the first quarter of 2010 is 1.669 billion levs and the fiscal reserve is only BGN 6.4 billion. At the same time, the revenues to the budget at the end of Q1 are BGN 5.171 billion, which is only 19.5% of the revenues provided for the whole year. VAT collections for the first three months of 2010 amount to BGN 995.3 million, which is just 14.6% of the initially provided collections. As a result, the revenues from VAT have fallen by BGN 606.2 million from the first trimester of 2009.

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

Concessions

We have drafted a strategy for the concessioning of ports and panels of experts will be ready with the analyses on these by the end of June, Deputy Transport Minister, Kamen Kichev, said at a session of the Consultative Council on Water Transport in Varna. He refused to specify the number of candidate concessionaires for the Varna Port. Public discussions on the concessions will be held after the analyses are ready. Leisure boats sailing along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast will be inspected throughout the summer. These are ready for operation in general but we have certain remarks,” added Kichev. Some 70 such vessels, aged five to ten years, sail in the summer in the Bulgarian Black Sea coastal waters.

Companies

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MEW) were misled to approve the main executer of the project for building desulphurisation installations in the two blocks of the state-owned TPP Maritsa East 2. This became clear after the inspection, carried out in the end of February 2010 at the headquarters of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Correspondence from Brussels warns Bulgarian side that the financing of the project with EUR 36,156 million from the ISPA program is stopped until the end of the investigation by OLAF focuses on. Apart from this they said from the headquarters that the loan agreement with EBRD for EUR 34 million with an option the loan to become EUR 55 million had expired on January 31, 2010 and a new one was not signed.

Port Lom and Port La Coruna prepare a strategy on how to attract freight from inland road transport to river shipping. The EU will allocate money to the partners under the Marco Polo II Program. Projects should be aimed at reduction of the road traffic and the adverse impacts of buses on the environment by attracting cargo to river transport, Bulgaria’s transport ministry explained. Representatives of the Spanish and Bulgarian ports will exchange experience on the problem with cargo in Lom today. EU plans to provide EUR 64 million funding for activities under Marco Polo II in 2010. Of these the grant may be between 53% and 50% of project costs.

A new Board of Directors (BoD) of the of the Sunny Beach joint stock company will be elected at an extraordinary general meeting today. Malina Stratieva, Mladen Mutafchiyski, Eli Anavi, Kolyo Kolev and Plamen Alexandrov will be released from the BoD. “Deputy Minister of Economy, Ivo Marinov, Deputy Governor of Burgas, Zlatko Dimitrov, Municipal Councilor from Nessebar, Konstantin Lefterov, Sonya Enilova, Director of the Burgas Regional Tourism Association, and Maria Mihaleva, Regional Manager of Alma Tour are most likely to assume the vacant posts," said former director of the company Malina Stratieva. There are no other items on the agenda. The new management will tackle the pressing question of the ownership of the resort's infrastructure.

The construction of Lot II of the Trakia Highway, the stretch from Nova Zagora to Stara Zagora has started. The symbolic first sod would be turned at the Stara Zagora–Dimitrovgrad junction with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, Regional Development Minister Rossen Plevneliev and Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov in attendance. Bulgaria's National Road Infrastructure Agency signed the contract with Magistrali Trace consortium on April 23 for the construction of the motorway's section. Magistrali Trace consortium, led by companies from Trace Group, one of Bulgaria's leading road-building companies, won the tender after it tabled the lowest bidding price at 137.9 million leva for the 32km stretch of motorway.

Europe

The European Central Bank said it will accept all Greek government debt as collateral when lending to banks, indefinitely suspending minimum credit-rating thresholds to support a 110 billion-euro bailout of the debt-strapped nation. The decision came after Greece reached agreement yesterday on the conditions for the three-year package of loans from the International Monetary Fund and its euro-region allies. Downgrades from credit-rating companies had threatened to render Greek bonds ineligible for collateral for ECB loans after Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded the nation to junk status. Had Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings followed suit, Greek bonds would have no longer been accepted under the previous rules, threatening to inflict further pain on the economy and its banks.

America

Private-equity firms Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners are close to buying Interactive Data Corp (IDC.N) for about $3.1 billion, a source familiar with the situation said. The deal for IDC, the financial-market data provider controlled by publisher Pearson PLC, could be announced as early as Monday, said the source. Pearson, which owns the Financial Times newspaper as well as the world's largest educational publishing business and Penguin Books, has a 61 percent stake in IDC. IDC, which sells financial information and analytical tools to banks and financial institutions, said in January it was reviewing strategic options. The company's business model allows for stable revenue, making it an attractive buyout target and giving banks the confidence to offer debt for the deal.

Asia

Honda Motor Co. will recall 167,255 Acura brand TSX cars because power-steering hoses can leak fluid and cause fires. The vehicles involve model years 2004 through 2008, Honda said in a notice on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. Honda learned of the defect in September after receiving a report of an under-the-hood fire, the Tokyo- based automaker told the agency in a letter. The recall will start about May 28, and repairs will be free, according to a summary on the NHTSA site. Chris Martin, a spokesman for Honda’s U.S. unit, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The Big Island – Dourankulak Lake

On the big island in the Dourankulak lake, the temple of the Great goddess-mother Kibella is to be found – one of the biggest prehistoric necropolis in the world – 2500 years old. The temple is dated back to the late bronze age (about IV-III century BC). A figure of Kibella was found inside of it. Kibella was the goddess, which protected the local tribe, before other tribes and cults came to replace them and settle in this extremely attractive place. The remains of the oldest and largest neolithic settlement in the continental part of Europe (5250-3800 BC), are situated in direct proximity to the temple. The bottom layers of the settlement hill (dated about V century BC) are of the greatest scientific interest. According to specialists, they carry the traces and could bring invaluable information about a unique cultural phenomena, related to the first proto-civilization (the so-called “Varna culture”) in human history. Its research should bring some light on the appearance of the so-called “Varna gold” – the first archeological finding of articles made of this metal and in such amount.