The deadline for introducing the new requirements on Ordinance H-18 by the companies that use the so-called SUPTO (retail management software systems) is extended by six months and instead of 31 March will be 30 September 2019. Until then, MF/NRA experts and branch organizations, members of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, will prepare amendments to some texts of the Ordinance, which impede the possibility of its application due to ambiguities in the definitions and/or due to the contradiction with the Bulgarian and European legislation, as well as with the specifics of individual business processes. This was agreed by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the Chairman of BIA Radosvet Radev.

Despite repeated warnings by BNB to banks being more cautious in lending to housing loans, their value continues to increase at a two-digit rate. Monetary statistics of the Bulgarian National Bank show that in January the annual growth was 11.1%. The total value of the mortgages granted is already BGN 10.57 billion, with the monthly average amount increasing by about BGN 100 million. The volume of consumer loans, which are often used to finance the purchase of property is rising rapidly as well. In January, the annual growth rate was 17.6% and the total value already exceeded BGN 9.14 billion. The latest warning from the BNB is from mid-January. The quarterly report on the state of the banking system states that rapid credit growth may create cyclical risks that may arise with future interest rate hikes or weaker economic activity.

Since the owners of Bulgartabac-Holding AD gradually sold out the brands and production capacities in the last few years, now the company is going through a new phase of transformation of the cigarette holding. The General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for April 11 shows that the name of the company will be changed to Bulgarian Investment Holding AD. The new company, whose name suggests it will be an investment holding, will also have a new statute. However, this will be voted on 25 April 2019. The latest data available in the Bulgartabac-Holding Commercial Register, which is mid-2018, shows that the main share of 47.75% is held by the Austrian company BT Invest GmbH. On July 16, however, Bulgartabac announced that it sold this stake to two companies registered in Liechtenstein. Woodford Establishment should have acquired 33% of the shares in the holding's capital, and Stiga Anstalt - 14.75% of the capital.

The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) examines whether retailer Fantastico (through its five companies, Euro Hart, Vinterco-BG, Van Holding, Europe-VN and DAR G.H.) has broken the rules with its prize draw from last November. The case is curious because it is coming shortly after Lidl filed a complaint against the Bulgarian chain and after the regulator, again on appeal of the German discounter, imposed a huge fine on Metro worth BGN 15 million due to comparative advertising. In the present case, CPC has innitiated the inspection itself. Lidl said the proceeding was not after their complaint, but they did not specify what their complaints against Fantastico at the end of January were. The occasion for the current inspection of the CPC was the organized by Fantastico raffle with awards during a promotion. According to CPC, the raffle offers "attractive prizes, while the conditions published on the retailer's website and in the brochure, there is no material information for users regarding the rules for participation in the lottery and how to win the prizes."

Telenor Bulgaria, part of Dutch-registered investment group PPF generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of BGN 68 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Telenor Bulgaria posted EBITDA of BGN 76 million in the third quarter of 2018 and BGN 56 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Telenor Bulgaria booked total revenue of BGN 191 million in the fourth quarter of last year. This compares to revenue of BGN 187 levs in the third quarter of last year and BGN 178 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. The company's clients decreased to 3.07 million at the end of 2018 from 3.163 million at the end of September. PPF Group, through its unit PPF TMT Bidco 1, completed the acquisition of Norwegian mobile operator Telenor's telecommunications assets in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia and Hungary for EUR 2.8 billion in July 2018. On the Bulgarian mobile segment, Telenor competes with A1 Bulgaria, the local unit of A1 Telekom Austria group, and Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), which operates under the brand name Vivacom.

Bulgarian transport services company Transpekt became the sole owner of local bus company Union Ivkoni after acquiring the remaining 49% minority interest from private investor Ivaylo Konstantinov earlier this month, commercial register data shows. Transpekt completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in Union Ivkoni from local diversified group Synthetica on January 30. Transpekt financed the deal through two loans from state-owned Bulgarian Development Bank with a total face value of EUR 41.1. Transpekt pledged its take in Union Ivkoni as collateral. In October last year, Transpekt received approval from Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition to acquire local bus companies Union Ivkoni and Grup Plus. Grup Plus is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of local Etap-Adress. Transpekt has a registered capital of BGN 50,000.

Bulgaria's Prista Oil Holding will increase the capital of its unit Prista Invest 2016 by BGN 12.2 million to BGN 15.5 million. Prista Oil Holding will subscribe for 12.227 million Prista Invest 2016 shares at a price of BGN 1 each, equal to their nominal value. In November last year, Prista Oil Holding increased the capital of Prista Invest 2016 to BGN 3.3 million from BGN 100,000. Prista Oil Holding engages in the production and distribution of motor and industrial oils, lubricants and special fluids. Prista Invest 2016 was established in 2016 with the purpose of acquiring a 30% stake in Dutch-registered Prista Oil Group, which is the sole owner of Bulgaria's Prista Oil Holding. Prista Invest 2016 acquired the 30% stake in Prista Oil Group from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and private equity fund ADM Capital through part of the proceeds of a EUR 50.34 million loan from Sofia-based lender UniCredit Bulbank.

Croatia will send a letter of intent to join the euro area’s waiting room, known as ERM-2, by July, according to central bank Governor Boris Vujcic. That move would then allow to the country to join the pre-euro exchange mechanism in 2020, Vujcic said at a panel discussion in Zagreb. “With our public debt levels on a strong downward path, we hope for a positive report from the European Commission on our efforts to resolve macroeconomic imbalances,” Vujcic said. “Then, after consultations with our partners, we will decide on the date of the letter, but it will probably be sent in the second quarter.” Euro candidate countries usually stay in the mechanism that limits exchange-rate moves vis-a-vis the euro for two years and, if meeting convergence criteria, adopt the euro at the end of that period. Bulgaria and Romania have also also trying to join the euro area, which currently consists of 19 countries.

Two of the most vaunted names in banking are fading into retirement. Bank of America said Monday it will gradually retire the U.S. Trust brand to become the Bank of America Private Bank. The move is part of CEO Brian Moynihan’s “one-company” strategy to more closely align the bank’s various businesses and branding. The company will also no longer use the Merrill Lynch brand for its investment banking, global markets and capital markets group. Bank of America purchased U.S. Trust from Charles Schwab in 2006 for $3.3 billion, calling it “one of the largest and most respected” wealth management firms. U. S. Trust, founded in 1853 in New York, is the first and oldest trust company in the United States and became synonymous with America’s moneyed elite. Its founders included Marshall Field, Erastus Corning and Joseph Lawrence, then mayor of New York, while its early clients included Gilded Age tycoons such as William Waldorf Astor and Oliver Harriman.

CNOOC, China’s dominant offshore oil and gas producer, has made a major natural gas discovery off the northeast Bohai Bay but investors were not moved as it will take years to be brought to market and the reserve is not big enough to move the needle on China’s rising reliance on foreign gas. A “high-quality and high-yield” hydrocarbon flow has been found at the Bozhong 19-6 exploration area by CNOOC. With an estimated geological reserve of 100 billion cubic feet, the field could meet demand of a million urban residents for a century, it said. The gas reservoirs are currently under evaluation and will proceed to the utilisation stage when all tests are completed. But according to analysts, not all of the reserve will be tapped and it will take years of investment to ascertain the amount of reserve that can be economically pumped. The discovery is the biggest by a Chinese energy giant in Bohai Bay in half a century.