Bulgaria should create a reliable strategy for diversifying gas supplies. In this respect, this country must also envisage necessary infrastructure projects. This is what recommendations to Bulgaria, published by the European Commission, read. The Commission also recommends that Bulgaria should provide detailed information on the strategy for the long-term supply of nuclear materials and fuel in view of the planned increase in nuclear power capacity of the country. The recommendations were made after Bulgaria presented its draft of an integrated plan in the sphere of energy and climate.

The Employment Agency recorded the lowest levels of unemployment in Bulgaria since the establishment of the Agency. Uunemployment was 5.3% in May, as it decreased by 0.3% month-to-month and 0.8% on an annual basis. At the end of May, the registered unemployed in the labor offices were 175,399 people, with the decrease compared to April by 9027 persons. Compared to May 2018, they are 25,059 less. Newly registered unemployed persons during the month were 18,897, of which 1464 were inactive - neither employed, nor students, nor were they looking for a job. The most sought-after groups of professions this month are: staff employed in the personal services sector (bartenders, waiters, chefs, maids, etc.); workers in mining and manufacturing, construction and transport; vendors; operators of stationary machinery and equipment; workers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; skilled workers in the food, apparel, woodworking and related industries; waste collectors and related workers; installers; metallurgists, machine builders and related workers and craftsmen; security staff, etc.

BMF Port Burgas JSC strictly fulfills its concession obligations and for only seven years has turned the Burgas port into one of the most important, competitive and preferred Black Sea ports. ‘Huge investment and fast pace of development have already had a positive impact on the national and regional economy. Freight turnover has grown 3 times, hundreds of new jobs have been created - the benefits to the local economy are obvious. Customers no longer surpass the Burgas bay - renovated, mechanized and automated Port Terminal Burgas East 2 and Port Terminal Burgas West port offer ship and cargo handling in accordance with the highest world standards.’ This is the reasononing of the Council of Ministers, which decided to extend the concessions of the two terminals from 35 years to 46 years and eight months each. BMF Port Burgas JSC is a concessionaire of Port Terminal Burgas East 2 since 2012 and of Port Terminal Burgas West since 2013.

Bulgarian telecommunications and IoT products company Allterco has completed the restructuring of its business, aimed at speeding up the completion of its planned sale of five subsidiaries to Norway's LINK Mobility Group. As a final step of the restructuring plan, Allterco's Romanian subsidiary Teracomm RO was acquired by two other Allterco units - Bulgaria-based Tera Communications and Teravoice. The deal is likely to be wrapped up soon, as it does not need anti-trust approval, according to a ruling published by the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) late in May. In December 2018, Allterco received approval from its shareholders to sell its units in Bulgaria - Teravoice, Tera Communications and Allterpay, as well as its Romania-based subsidiary Teracomm RO and Macedonia-based Tera Communications DOOEL, to LINK Mobility Group for at least EUR 7.9 million. The deal was initially expected to be completed by the end of April 2018, but the negotiations between the contracting parties were temporarily suspended as Victory Partners VII Norway launched a takeover bid for LINK Mobility Group last year.

Bulgaria's Capman Green Energy Fund said that its unit Solar Logistic, previously known as Sevko Bulgaria, has acquired two solar parks with installed capacity of 197.4 kW each for a total of EUR 684,000. Solar Logistic acquired 100% of solar park operators Solar Park Letnica and Balkanenergy for EUR 341,911 and EUR 341,850, respectively, Capman Green Energy Fund said in an interim financial statement. According to data from the commercial register, both Solar Park Letnica and Balkanenergy were previously fully owned by local company Industrial Park - Letnica. In January, Solar Logistic placed an eight-year BGN 25 million bond, saying it is planning to invest the proceeds in the development of renewable energy projects and the acquisition of new plots of land suitable for construction of solar parks and biomass plants. In December 2018, Capman Green Energy Fund acquired 100% of Sevko Bulgaria from local diversified group Holding Nov Vek for an undisclosed price. Sevko Bulgaria was subsequently renamed to Solar Logistic. At the time, Capman Green Energy Fund said it intends to build a solar park on property owned by Sevko Bulgaria in the town of Sevlievo, in northern Bulgaria.

Henceforth, Holding BDZ will hardly need extra financial aid. The financial position of the three companies in the holding is the main focus of the new management, said Grigori Grigorov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holding BDZ. According to him, the holding is developing very well, the costs are limited and the focus in the last months is on the sale of non-operating assets. Freight transport reported a slight decline in May, resulting in annual revenue reductions of 3-4%. Passenger transport saw revenue growth is about 2.5% for the first five months of the year, he said. According to Grigorov, a further increase in wages in Holding BDZ could be expected with a new increase in minimum wages.

Vetko Arabadzhiev sold Victoria Palace Hotel in Sunny Beach for BGN 50 million. Although the famous Plovdiv businessman is in custody for tax evasion and money laundering, the transaction has gone smoothly because he himself is not officially the owner anywhere. Vendor is the Victoria Group Corporation, which is owned by the Seychelles-registered Victoria Group Services Limited, and buyer is SB Royal Hotels with Manager Martin Marinov. The contract was signed on 17 May. In the biggest reservation system booking.com reads that the 5-star hotel is under new management. The mastodon disappeared from the corporate site of Victoria Group. Shortly thereafter, on May 21, Victoria Group Corporation’s received an agreement from Commercial Bank D to raise the special stake just above the 8-storey hotel complex. The new mortgage was signed with the name of SB Royal Hotels.

Bulgarian express delivery company Speedy said that its shareholders have approved a gross dividend payout of BGN 1.40 per share for 2018. The company paid a gross dividend of BGN 1.20 share for 2017. Speedy will distribute a total of BGN 7.53 million as dividend for last year. Speedy shares last traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange at a price of BGN 50. The express delivery company's non-consolidated net profit rose to BGN 12.2 million in 2018 from BGN 8.4 million the year before.

Franco-Israeli cable magnate Patrick Drahi made a surprise move into the art world by snapping up Sotheby’s in a deal worth $3.7 billion, marking the art auction house’s return to private ownership after 31 years. The acquisition allows Drahi to join French billionaire Francois Pinault - who owns Sotheby’s main rival Christie’s - at the top of the art world and New York society. Drahi joins an exclusive club of French billionaires active in the global art market, which also includes LVMH’s boss Bernard Arnault through his Louis Vuitton foundation. Drahi’s expansion in the United States also has echoes of former Vivendi boss Jean-Marie Messier, who turned a struggling French water company into a global media giant with stakes in established U.S. institutions. The deal also marks a new chapter for the 275-year-old auction house that became a destination for a new generation of wealth created on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and around the world. In many ways, being public put Sotheby’s at a competitive disadvantage to its main U.S. rival Christie’s, which was already private, art experts said.

Pfizer agreed to spend $11 billion to buy Array BioPharma, a company that is developing small molecule medicines primarily to treat cancer. Array's portfolio includes two drugs in more than 30 clinical trials for different kinds of cancer, particularly colorectal cancer. The companies said that is the third-most-common form of cancer:140,250 patients were diagnosed with cancer of the colon or rectum in the United States in 2018, and approximately 50,000 are estimated to die of their disease each year. The proposed acquisition of Array "sets the stage to create a potentially industry-leading franchise for colorectal cancer alongside Pfizer's existing expertise in breast and prostate cancers," said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Array is essentially a start-up, with revenue of $174 million in its most recent fiscal year and a history of net losses. It is dwarfed in size by Pfizer which had revenue of $53.6 billion in 2018, making in the second-largest US pharmaceutical company behind only Johnson & Johnson. Pfizer said it will use debt and cash reserves to make the purchase. The purchase price of $48 a share represents a 62% premium over Array's closing price on Friday. Shares of Array soared 60% in premarket trading on the purchase announcement, while shares of Pfizer were little changed.

China has halted a dispute at the World Trade Organization over its claim to be a market economy, a panel of three WTO adjudicators said on Monday, meaning Beijing must accept continued EU and U.S. “anti-dumping” levies on cheap Chinese goods. One trade official close to the case said so much of the ruling had gone against Beijing that it had opted to pull the plug before the result became official. “They lost so much that they didn’t even want the world to see the panel’s reasoning,” the official said. Without a WTO ruling in Beijing’s favor, the EU and United States can keep imposing duties on cheap imports from China while disregarding its claim that they are fairly priced. China had insisted that they treat it as a “market economy”, countering their view that the price of Chinese exports could not be taken at face value due to state interference in the economy. It took legal action saying that under its 2001 WTO membership terms it must be recognized as a “market economy” after 15 years.