The Bulgarian banking sector as a whole is sustainable. This is the main conclusion that the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) made on the basis of the results of the European Central Bank's audit of assets and stress tests of six Bulgarian banks. At the end of 2018, the ECB chose six Bulgarian banks - UniCredit Bulbank, DSK Bank, UBB, Fibank, CCB and Investbank, to which in the beginning of 2019 it appointed an asset check. The inspection was due to Bulgaria's application to apply for the euro zone prefix - ERMII, as well as for the EU Banking Union. BNB has discussed the results of the review and endorsed them. "Follow-up will be undertaken to further strengthen the bank's capital position in strict accordance with the BNB mandate and the relevant regulatory framework," the central bank said.

The state spends record-breaking over BGN 25 million per day on public procurement from the beginning of the year until 27 July, shows data of the Public Procurement Agency. Meanwhile, the tendency for half of all appeals against state and local government procedures to be justified is maintained. Another quarter of the orders turned out to be illegal afterwards. In 2019 the state and local authorities signed over 11,300 contracts totaling BGN 5.12 billion. This means that the state already spends BGN 25.3 mln for the last five years. 6601 orders have been announced since the beginning of the year until July 27 and 1/6 of them are financed by EU funds. Most money this year is spent by the state on construction, followed by supplies and services. The contracting authorities with the most orders are the municipalities. A problem with which the local governments are increasingly confronted remains the appeal. A solution to this problem has not yet been found. Appeals cannot be dropped because in almost half of the cases they are justified.

Two complaints have been filed to the Commission for the Protection of Competition against the choice of Sofconnect consortium with Munich Airport Operator for concessionaire of Sofia Airport. They came from Mag Overseas Investment Ltd and Airports de Paris SA. Airports de Paris is part of the Group ADP consortium and the Turkish TAV Havalimanlari Holding A.S., which was ranked second in the procedure. MAG Overseas Investments Ltd is the leading partner in the other Vitosha consortium, which remained fourth. The winner's plan provides for EUR 24.5 million per year for state remuneration and EUR 608 million for investment (plus the requested initial payment of all BGN 550 million). The CPC now has to react, which, after initiating proceedings, must ask the Ministry of Transport within three days to provide all the documentation for the concession procedure. Within this time, the regulator must prepare an opinion as to whether it wants a pre-performance of the contract, meaning the complaints not to stop signing the contract.

Bulgarian car battery maker Monbat said that its board has approved the acquisition of a 66.66% stake in Italian engineering company Science Technology & Consulting (STC) for an undisclosed price. The acquisition will expand Monbat Economic Group’s used batteries processing portfolio in Western Europe and is part of the group’s strategy for vertical integration and geographical diversification. The acquisition will allow Monbat to introduce new services, such as electrolyte recovery, heavy and light plastics separation and recycling, hydrometallurgical conversion of lead paste in lead oxide, ultrapure lead oxide production and ultrapure lead oxide reduction at low temperatures, used in new battery production and many other technologies owned by the company.

Approximately 58 decares of new logistics space will be put into operation with the completion of the first two phases of Logistics Park Sofia. The project is being built on the land of the village of Ravno Pole, Elin Pelin municipality, from Warehouse and Logistics. The first building, which is about 25,000 square meters, is on the roof stage and is expected to be ready by the end of the year. The second - from 31,000 square meters, with a run-in deadline by the end of 2020, is at stage "first sod". Park construction started in November last year. The investment in the first phase is BGN 15.3 million and the total amount in the project per 100 decares will be about BGN 32 million. Warehouse and Logistics bought the land in 2017 from the Traffic Safety Training Center for BGN 384,000 according to the Land Register. The company has a preliminary contract for another 100 decares in the land. It will become final once the detailed development plan for the terrain is adopted. In total, the park will have a total of four buildings with more than 115,000 square meters of land on 200 decares by 2021. Roads and streets occupy about 40% of the total area of the property.

Seven properties, private state property, located in Sofia, Krasna Polyana district, will be imported as a non-cash contribution in the capital of National Company Industrial Zone JSC. This is clear from a decision of the Council of Ministers. The properties represent non-built and built terrains with a total area of 85,668 sq.m., whose location, good transport communications and the availability of skilled labor make them suitable for realization of investment projects. Emil Karanikolov, Minister of Economy, has been instructed to carry out the necessary actions to increase the company's capital with the value of ownership of real estate. There are no industrial enterprises in the Krasna Polyana region and the ecological environment is one of the best in Sofia. The total area of the region is 918 hectares.

Intergovernmental company ICGB has submitted an application for approval of the Network Code of the Interconnection Gas Network (IGB), pursuant to the Final Joint Commission Decision on the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission and the Energy Regulatory Authority of Greece on August 8th, 2018. With the cited decision the company is exempt from the requirements of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council from July 13th, 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and for repealing a Directive about access of third parties, regulated tariffs and separate property. According to the Final Co-decision, ICGB is obliged to submit for approval to the national energy regulators of Bulgaria and Greece the IGB Network Code no later than twelve months before the date of commercial exploitation. Last week, the licensing process of the Greek section of Greece-Bulgaria interconnector was completed.

Bulgaria's First Investment Bank said that its non-consolidated net profit rose to BGN 94.2 million in the first half of 2019 from BGN 45.4 million a year earlier, backed by investment property revaluations and lower depreciation costs. Fibank booked net revenue of BGN 72.9 million from investment property revaluations in the January-June period of this year, up from BGN 13.7 million in the comparable period of 2018. The bank also nearly halved its depreciation costs to BGN 23.5 million in the period under review, from BGN 45.9 million in the like period of 2018. The lender's revenue from banking operations fell to BGN 175.7 million, from BGN 181.4 million, net interest income decreased to BGN 115.8 million from BGN 121.4 million, while net fee and commission income edged up to BGN 48.0 million from 46.2 million. Administrative expenses grew to BGN 106.1 million in the first half of 2019 from BGN 96.1 million in the same period of last year. The lender's assets totalled BGN 9.54 billion at the end of June, up from BGN 9.24 billion a year earlier.

Vodafone is to spin off its pan-European mobile mast business with an eye on a stock market flotation worth as much as EUR 20 bn in the next 18 months. The new standalone business, called TowerCo, will comprise 61,700 towers across 10 countries, with 75% of the sites in principal European markets Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain. The business will generate about EUR 1.7 bn in revenues and EUR 900 m profits, leading analysts to value the business at between EUR 15 bn and EUR 20 bn, based on valuations of other mast businesses. “We are now creating Europe’s largest tower company,” said Nick Read, Vodafone’s chief executive. “Given the scale and quality of our infrastructure we believe there is a substantial opportunity to unlock value for shareholders.” Vodafone does not wholly own all the towers, for example O2 owns half of the 18,500 in its UK joint venture, meaning the company is likely to pocket about EUR 12 bn from the eventual sale or flotation.

Apple has acquired most of Intel's smartphone modem business for $1 billion. As part of the deal, 2,200 Intel employees will become Apple employees, and Apple will gain some patents, equipment, and intellectual property as well. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019. It's a very Apple-like move. The company prefers to control its own fate whenever possible, integrating its own hardware and software to create an optimum user experience, while most other mobile device makers have to make their hardware work with someone else's operating system, most commonly Google's Android. The announcement comes just a few months after Apple settled a yearlong, multi-nation legal battle with Qualcomm, Intel's main competitor, which has been supplying modems for Apple devices. Apple had accused Qualcomm of charging excessive fees for patent royalties, and refusing to sell chips to companies that declined to license the patents. While the legal battle was going on, Apple used Intel modems to create the iPhone XS.

Xiaomi has dominated India's smartphone market for more than a year, but it just lost top spot to another Chinese company. BBK Electronics, which owns smartphone brands Oppo, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus, accounted for 30% of Indian smartphone sales in the quarter ended June. That put the company just ahead of Xiaomi, according to a new report from tech consultancy Counterpoint Research. Xiaomi is still the biggest single brand with 28%, followed by South Korea's Samsung with 25%. But Vivo, Realme and Oppo round up the top five with a combined 28% of the market, and when OnePlus (with 2%) is included, BBK comes out on top. The prize is enormous — India already has more than 400 million smartphone users, and hundreds of millions of Indians are expected to discover the internet through mobile devices in the coming years. Brands like Apple have struggled to crack the price-sensitive market, leaving Chinese manufacturers to grab the huge opportunity by offering more affordable smartphones to millions of Indians whose average annual wage is less than $2,000.