If Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, Bulgaria could lose up to 17,890 jobs, according to a report prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Flanders Region, Belgium, Leuven University. For the whole European Union, the loss will be within 1.2 million jobs. Unsurprisingly, the UK will suffer the most - as many as 500,000 jobs. Germany will bear the brunt of 292,000 lost positions and France and Italy - 141,000 and 139,000 respectively. The report does not focus on Bulgaria, with only estimates of job losses - nearly 18,000 in hard Brexit and around 4,000 in agreement. A recent analysis also shows in which sectors Bulgaria's largest exports to the UK are exports, which will be hampered by customs duties in the event of a Brexit deal. These are furniture (worth USD 85 million in 2017), followed by medicines (USD 73 million), machinery, clothing, and nuts. In 2018, Bulgaria's total exports to the UK is BGN 1.36 billion, which places it among its most important trading partners. Another sector affected may be tourism.

The Bulgarian National Bank has registered 90 new Bulgarians with more than BGN 1 million in the bank in the space of just one year. Data show there are 916 millionaires in the country at this time. Their aggregate wealth amounts to around BGN 2 billion. The average monthly salary in Bulgaria is BGN 1247. The lowest average monthly salary is in Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaria – BGN 787, the highest is in Sofia – BGN 1724.

Latvia's competition authority said that Switzerland-based ICT solutions and services provider Also Holding, which is active on the Latvian market, is seeking its approval to acquire Bulgarian IT solutions distributor Solytron. Latvia's Competition Council must decide whether to authorise or ban the notified acquisition within a period of up to three months, it said in a statement last week. On completion of the acquisition Also Holding will be represented in almost all East European markets, except Russia, with total market volume of about EUR 30 billion, the company said in April, when the company announced it will acquire Solytron Bulgaria. Currently, Also Holding is present in 22 European countries. Solytron posted revenue of BGN 172.3 million in 2017, according to the company most recent financial statement available. Also Holding, majority-owned by Germany-based investment company Droege Group, connects over 100,000 clients with more than 550 providers of ICT services in 18 European countries. The company's portfolio includes logistics, financial and supply services as well.

Eurohold has submitted an application to the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) for establishment of a lack of concentration on the energy market. Alice Khodorkova of CEZ Group Prague said: "Eurohold has informed us that it has submitted an application to the Bulgarian antimonopoly commission at the end of last week. We expect CPC to announce the start of the administrative procedure." Following the signing of the preliminary contract between CEZ and Eurohold for the purchase of the business of the Czech company in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian candidate announced that they would submit an application to the antitrust commission within two weeks, which should decide whether the transaction would lead to an unlawful concentration on the electrical energy market in Bulgaria. This deadline is long overdue, but there is no violation, because there is no legal requirement for a specific timeframe for the submission of the application.

Bulgarian joint-stock company Neochim warned that high natural gas prices in Bulgaria, as well as rising prices of the carbon emissions quotas, could lead to "massive staff cuts" and "the possibility of indefinite postponement of relaunching ammonia production facilities after scheduled repair”. In a message to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the Financial Supervision Commission, the mineral fertilizers and chemical products plant Neochim stated that their concerns were related to the price of natural gas. "Currently, Bulgarian industrial consumers are paying one of the highest values for natural resources in the European Union," the statement said. The company recalls that it is the second largest consumer of natural gas in Bulgaria after Toplofikacia Sofia and a large part of the company's expenses is directed to this item. Another major issue is the ever-increasing price of carbon emissions. Neochim JSC is subject to carbon costs through the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). For this reason, the fertilizer producer pays over EUR 25 per ton.

Bulgargaz sues Toplofikacia Sofia for BGN 35 million. The executive director of the gas company Nikolay Pavlov said. This amount is only a part of the total debt of BGN 120 million, which the Sofia-based district heating company company owes Bulgargaz. The liabilities have been accumulated within one year after the Bulgarian Energy Holding purchased in full the debt of the heating company in 2018. Pavlov explained that Bulgargaz has already filed a lawsuit because it is in danger of not being able to pay for the fuel to its supplier, Russia's Gazprom Export. Bulgargaz cannot and should not cover the obligations of a client on its own account, including Toplofikacia Sofia, the head of the gas company underlined. He explained that no company can simultaneously cover huge debt while fulfilling its obligations.

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange said that it has received a request for admission to trading of an eight-year BGN 25 million bond issued by local Solar Logistic, previously known as Sevko Bulgaria. The issue, due in January 2027, consists of 25,000 bonds with a nominal value of BGN 1000 each, the stock exchange operator said. Solar Logistic issued the bonds to fund acquisitions of renewable energy projects. Earlier this year, the company acquired two solar parks with installed capacity of 197.4 kW each for a total of EUR 684,000. 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.

Bayer shares soared as much as 11% on Friday on a report that the German company has proposed to pay up to $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 U.S. lawsuits related to its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. The stock was on track for its best single-day gain in a decade as traders said the settlement report from Bloomberg could relieve pressure on Bayer shares. Bayer shares have lost more than a third, or roughly 30 billion euros, in market value since August last year, when a California jury in the first such lawsuit found that Monsanto should have warned of the alleged cancer risks from Roundup. Bayer acquired Monsanto in a $63 billion deal last year. The German drugs and pesticides company has engaged in negotiations with plaintiffs’ lawyers, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Bayer’s Chief Executive Werner Baumann last week said the company would consider settling with U.S. plaintiffs only on reasonable terms, and if such a move wraps up all cases. He also said at the time the group was “constructively engaging” in a court-ordered process with mediator Ken Feinberg on the cases heard in federal court. Most of the pending cases, however, have been filed with U.S. state courts.

Facebook is reportedly in talks with news publishers to offer “millions of dollars” for the rights to publish their material on its site. The move follows years of criticism over its growing monopolization of online advertising to the detriment of the struggling news industry. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Facebook representatives had told news executives that they’d pay as much as $3m a year to license stories, headlines and other material. Facebook declined to comment but confirmed that the company is working on launching a “news tab” for its service this fall. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg began talking about a news section on the service in April. Facebook has pitched various news outlets – including ABC News, Dow Jones, The Washington Post and Bloomberg – on its news tab, according to the Wall Street Journal report. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Facebook has approached News Corp about paying to license Wall Street Journal stories. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The Journal report was not clear as to whether Facebook was offering $3m to individual publishers or in total to all news organizations.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei unveiled its own operating system on Friday, as it faces the threat of losing access to Android systems amid escalating US-China trade tensions. Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer business, told a press conference in the southern city of Dongguan that the new system, called HarmonyOS or HongMeng in Chinese, would "bring more harmony and convenience to the world". The highly-anticipated software is considered crucial for the tech group's survival as it confronts a looming White House ban on US companies selling technology products to Huawei which could remove its access to Google's Android operating system. Yu said the new system was a "future oriented OS" to be "more smooth and secure", which he said was "completely different from Android and iOS". Huawei said the first version of the operating system would launch later this year in its smart screen products, before expanding across a range of smart devices including wearable technology over the next three years. In May the company was swept into the deepening trade war between Beijing and Washington which has seen punitive tariffs slapped on billions of dollars of two-way trade.