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Bulgaria's Revenue Agency Wants Access to Credit Records

m.staneva — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:33:00 GMT

Bulgaria's revenue agents must have full access to the credit records of companies that have applied for business loans, the Director of NRA, Krasimir Stefanov, says.

Stefanov spoke Thursday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, saying it is a very urgent and pressing matter to grant this access because during the so-called “credit boom” businesses presented to banks forged information much different than the one listed in the National Revenue Agency (NRA) tax declarations.

According to the NRA Director, there are scores of instances when companies with zero profits have obtained loans in the amount of thousands of hundreds of EUR.

The request for such access has been voiced during previous cabinet terms as well, but never materialized over the banks refusal to comply basing it on the Credit Institutions Act protecting their clients' account information.

Cleves Launches New Luxury Rental Project in Sofia

m.staneva — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:26:42 GMT

Cleves, a luxury Sofia apartment rentals company. has opened a brand-new 15-apartment development at Cherkovna Str in Sofia’s Oborishte municipality.

Cleves Cherkovna is the company’s most central rental property to date. The new property, which was formally presented to the media Wednesday night, is just to the east of the Doctors Garden. The developer was Prime Property BG REIT.

This is the company’s fourth property to open in Sofia. Cleves already has a Sofia portfolio of 42 apartments for rent at projects in the quarters of Boyana, Izgrev and Manastirski Livadi.

Cleves Cherkovna has a range of luxury 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, and two penthouses.

Each Cherkovna apartment is different, with its own design philosophy, but all focus on style and comfort. The apartments are light and airy, with big windows, the company managers said emphasizing also that each apartment has a balcony, with the upper floors offering wonderful views of Vitosha and the city. Every apartment has its own underground parking space, with elevator access to the living area.

Cars enter via a custom-built vehicle lift. For security and convenience, a concierge is on duty 24 hours a day.

Cleves has made it clear that it owns and operates the entire building - which means that everything is maintained in tip-top condition.

Cleves has installed modern fitted kitchens, and every apartment has central heating and its own air-conditioning. Each apartment has Wi-fi pre-installed, plus flat-screen TV with satellite and cable access. Every apartment has a full security system, with burglar alarm motion detection, and access alarms.

Cleves EOOD is in the process of acquiring a EUR 40 M portfolio of up-market, new-built residential property in Sofia.

The company focuses on the top-end of the rentals market. Its clients are senior international business people and diplomats.

The company points out that owns and operates all the apartments in its portfolio in order to be able to offer the highest quality of service.

Shares Hit New Plateaus on Bulgarian Stock Market

m.staneva — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:23:32 GMT

Thursday’s session on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) finished with another low turnover of less than BGN 290,000.

Half of it was generated by Varna-based ship repairer Odessos, which closed 6.5% lower at BGN 82 per share.

The ship company traded to the losers’ side on Tuesday only to claw back into positive territory on Wednesday but in a token volume.

On the four day of trading, the blue-chip index SOFIX inched up by 0.78% to 365.49 points, and the sector index BGREIT added 3.23% to 39.58 points. BGTR30, which gauges the performance of the stocks with the highest market capitalisation and liquidity, gained 3.23% to 39.58 points.

Only BG40 ended the session in the red, at 103.47 points.

Among the risers, industrial conglomerate Chimimport picked up 2.78% to BGN 2.06 apiece at the closing bell.

Energy-to-construction firm Enemona moved in the opposite direction, hitting a new low of BGN 6.76 per share after losing 2% of its market value.

Vet products maker Biovet surprisingly enjoyed busy trade, ranking fifth in terms of volumes with BGN 9,000 worth of shares changing hands. The company pared the early-trade loss to 0.3%, ending the session at BGN 6.33.

Luxury Property Prices Settle in Small Deal Numbers

m.staneva — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:20:02 GMT

In the face of the market meltdown, the prices of luxury properties in some parts of Bulgaria are settling and the investment turns out to be profitable, according to a poll by Dnevnik among real estate agency owners.

Prices in the luxury property segment are shedding much less than in the mass segment, said Polina Stoykova, chief operations manager of Bulgarian Properties. She noted that despite the price drop expensive apartments remain one of the most stable segments on the property market.

However, Vesela Ilieva, executive director of Unique Estates, said that deals are struck at prices 30% bellow those offered at property websites.

In Sofia, home prices on Saborna, Oborishte, Shipka, opposite the parliament building and Doctors’ Gardens are high because supply as low and demand is high, according to Ilieva. She added that prices start from EUR 3,000 per square metre but in fact the properties are sold at lower prices.

Alongside Sofia, seaside vacation complexes are the other major luxury property purchase destination in Bulgaria. High prices are offered near Evksinovgrad, Primorski Park, St Konstantin and Elena and central Varna.

The main customers at the moment are Bulgarians and foreigners from the former Soviet countries. Deals are only sporadic and are hard to executive, according to real estate agents.

Melrose Finds New Natural Gas Deposits in Bulgaria

m.staneva — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:15:31 GMT

Natural gas prices in Bulgaria will go down in the fall of 2010 as a result of extraction from three new deposits discovered by UK-based company Melrose resources.

The three new natural gas deposits – Kaliakra, Kavarna, and Karvana East – are located in the very northeast of Bulgaria, in the Black Sea off the Kaliakra Cape.

The discovery of the new deposits was announced Wednesday by Bulgaria’s Economy Minister Traicho Traikov together with the CEO of Melrose David Archer and UK Ambassador to Bulgaria Steve Williams.

Archer has pointed out that the new deposits are a real commercial discovery, and that the company will start laying pipes for the extracting of the natural gas in August.

The price of the natural gas will be negotiated between Melrose and the Bulgarian government. However, the UK company has made it clear that it will be a lot under USD 300 per 1000 cubic meters of gas, which is the price that the Bulgarian government is currently trying to get from Gazprom, the country’s only natural gas supplier.

The three new deposits discovered by Melrose contain over 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas which will guarantee 20% of Bulgaria’s annual consumption (20% = 500 million cubic meters) over a period of 6 years.

Melrose is also cooperating with the Bulgarian government for constructing the future Galata natural gas storage facility, which will be the second of its kind in the country in addition to the existing storage facilities at Chiren. The Galata facility is located close to the spot where the Russian-sponsored gas transit pipeline South Stream is expected to enter Bulgarian territory after starting at Novorossyisk in Russia, and going through the Black Sea for about 900 km.

Melrose Resources plc is an Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration, development and production company with interests in Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania, United States, France and Turkey.

Vorskla Steel Declares Interest in Owning Bulgaria's Obsolete Mill

m.staneva — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:12:35 GMT

The CEO of Vorskla Steel Bulgaria, Viktor Demyanyuk, declared at a press conference Wednesday that the company is still interested in purchasing the Bulgarian obsolete steal mill Kremikovzi.

The Ukrainian Vorskla Steal, related to billionaire, Konstantin Zhevago, will take part in the public tender for the mill's sale despite the fact the latter is “a jalopy with the price of a Mercedes,” according to Demyanyuk.

The CEO insists his company, which has been declared insolvent, has money for the purchase, but wants first to check thoroughly the real condition and state of Kremikovzi in order to make sure he can have a return on the investment and the mill can really produce something that can be sold on the world market.

The asking price is BGN 565,517,510 million.

Demyanyuk says he already has a recovery plan for the mill; had conducted preliminary talks with the companies to which the behemoth owes money and they were ready to accept differed payments.

The CEO further presented documents evidencing embezzlement, Value Added Tax (VAT) draining schemes at Kremikovzi, and the illegal sale of electric power to other companies for prices 25% higher than the market ones.

Demyanyuk was firm “Vorskla Steel” was chased away from the mill on purpose with the sole goal to declare it bankrupt.

Earlier Wednesday, Bulgaria announced the site and the assets of its largest steelmaker Kremikovtzi will be offered for sale in the middle of September, four months after the behemoth was sent into liquidation.

Neochim, Lesoplast Post Higher Sales

m.staneva — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:10:04 GMT

Two more Bulgarian exporters have unveiled steady growth in sales.

Fertiliser maker Neochim posted a 71% rise in turnover, and timber products maker Lesoplast recorded a 25% increase. Lesoplast said its sales soared almost 25% for the first half of the year to BGN 17.2 million thanks to resuscitated demand and stabilising plywood prices on foreign markets.

Neochim’s 71% rise in sales between January and June, to BGN 86 million, is half of the figure reached for the first six months of 2008 when the crisis had not yet struck the Bulgarian economy. Furthermore, Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), where under no clear criteria half of the monies of strategic government companies are parked, saw its profit surged by 30% to BGN 38 million against the backdrop of slowdown in the overall banking sector.

Non-banking lender Easy Asset Management reported its interest income rose by one-third to BGN 14.2 million and its profit more than doubled to BGN 4.3 million.

Bulgarian Indices Float Higher in Thin Volumes

m.staneva — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:06:49 GMT

The indices of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), which have been groping for direction this week, were painted green on Wednesday but turnover was just BGN 600,000.

SOFIX of the blue chips moved ahead by 3.82 points, or 1%, to 362.65. The broader BG40 also added 1% to finish the session at 103.96 points. BGTR30 of the stocks with the highest market capitalisation and liquidity inched up 1 points to 273.68, an increase of 0.4%. Only the sector index BGREIT closed in negative territory, off to 38.34 points.

First Investment Bank (FIBank) was yesterday’s best performer in terms of volume, producing almost one-third of the total turnover with BGN 188,000. It ended flat at BGN 1.81 per share.

The runner-up by volume was industrial conglomerate Chimimport, which saw shares worth BGN 136,000 change hands to go up by 2.38% to BGN 2.15 apiece.

Drug maker Sopharma, resort operator Albena, and Doverie United Holding each generated between BGN 30,000 and 50,000. Albena rose the highest, by 6.74%, to BGN 57 per share.

The two major deals in FIBank and Chimimport drove up the daily turnover, said Tsvetoslav Tsachev, head of research at Sofia-based Elana Trading.

Cautious analyst forecast prevented any big moves by global indices. Some predicted the US economy is facing double recession, and the Wall Street Journal reported that many investors remain uncertain despite the good signals.

Lufthansa Technik Expands in Bulgaria

a.shulekova — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:40:27 GMT

Lufthansa Technik Sofia, a joint venture between Germany’s Lufthansa Technik and the Bulgarian Aviation Group, announced it will invest in the construction of new facilities for aircraft overhaul and maintenance near Sofia Airport.

The company, which has served so far 40 planes of more than 20 airlines in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa, said it has been flooded by orders and will accept no more by the end of 2011.

Another 35 aircraft will be serviced over the next 17 months.

The maintenance, repair, and overhaul complex located at the airport of the Bulgarian capital Sofia was opened in October 2008.

Together with the Bulgarian Aviation Group, which owns 20% stake in the enterprise, Lufthansa Technik has invested more than BGN 50 M in the modernization of the maintenance facility and the training of the workers.

All types of planes of the series Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are serviced in the repair complex, which has a total area of 6 000 square meters and allows the simultaneous servicing of two planes.

Lufthansa Technik has four other similar facilities Schoenefeld Maintenance Centre in Berlin, Lufthansa Technik Malta, Shannon Airspace in Ireland, and Lufthansa Technik Budapest.

AES Plans to Construct USD 400 M Solar Power Plant in Bulgaria

a.shulekova — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:38:41 GMT

AES Corp., the U.S. power producer with operations in more than two dozen countries, is keen on constructing in Bulgaria a USD 400 M solar power plant with a capacity of 80 megawatts, the American ambassador in Sofia announced.

“AES has been waiting for six months to go ahead with its investment, which costs nothing to the Bulgarian government,” US Ambassador to Bulgaria, James Warlick, said a joint press conference with representatives of AES Solar Energy.

Bulgaria is undergoing a boom in the renewable energy sector, but experts have warned the government it could actually end up doing more harm than good for the environment.

The current boom originates in a European Union-wide agreement under which Bulgaria has said 16 percent of electricity consumption will come from renewable energy sources by 2020 compared with under eight percent now.

AES Corp., is the second American company, which voiced plans for investments in Bulgaria and was personally presented by the US envoy here for the last two weeks.

In the middle of July Ambassador Warlick gave an official presentation of the American company Chevron, which has expressed interest in drilling for shale gas in the country.

Chevron Corp. has applied for a permit to explore for natural gas in shale deposits in northeastern Bulgaria near the Romanian border.

Bulgarian Transfer Pricing Manual Released

a.shulekova — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:27:24 GMT

The Bulgarian revenue administration has made available a “Transfer Pricing Manual” on its web-site (www.nap.bg) which affects enterprises carrying out related party transactions.

Though addressed to tax officials, the Manual represents a useful piece of guidance for taxpayers also, as it elaborates on a wide range of transfer pricing topics, such as documentation requirements and intra-group services.

The Manual provides more predictability to taxpayers at a time when the revenue authorities are becoming ever more active in the transfer pricing area.

The Manual is available only in Bulgarian here.

Bulgaria Auctions BGN 93m Ten-year T-bonds

m.staneva — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:43:57 GMT

Bulgaria's Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Monday auctioned BGN 93.11 million of ten-year fixed-rate Treasury bonds.

Initially, the ministry offered just BGN 45 million worth of bonds but decided to double the issue after dealers placed bids for BGN 115 million.

The BGN 45 million offering produced an average yield of 5.97%.

“Given the registered high level of investment demand, the condition and the development of the financial system in the country and at an international level, coupled with the MoF’s commitment to implement issue policy that is flexible and adequate to the financial situation, the Ministry has decided to approve bids with a combined face value of BGN 93.11 million, which corresponds to average yield of 6.10%,” the MoF said in a statement.

In end-June, the finance ministry sold BGN 45 million of ten-year Treasury bonds at a minimum offered price of BGN 90. However, in May it rejected all bids after it deemed the average yield of 7.04too high. Therefore the ministry set a minimum price, thus fixing the interest rate at which it was seeking financing. The ministry can reject all bids if it is not satisfied with any of them. However, May saw the first such rejection in the past years.

Bulgarian Stock Market Shatters Negative Records

m.staneva — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:38:21 GMT

Tuesday’s sluggish trade on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) was again dominated by pre-arranged deals, involving only shares of rubber products maker Kauchuk.

The company shed 2.78% of its market value in a volume of BGN 630,000, representing almost the entire trade turnover on the unofficial market, closing at BGN 88.90 apiece.

Of the stock indices, only SOFIX of the blue chips turned green, but it was pale, ending at 358.83 points. The broader BG40 and the sector index BGREIT dropped 1 point to 102.98 and 38.65, respectively. BGTR30, which gauges the performance of the stocks with the highest market capitalisation and liquidity, retreated slightly to 272.60 points.

Blue chips saw shares worth just BGN 150,000 change hands during yesterday’s session. One-third of the official-market turnover was generated by drug maker Sopharma, which added 0.5% to BGN 3.8 per share.

“Stock markets reflect the economy,” said Apostol Apostolov of TBI. He explained that Bulgaria’s flagging economic growth is unable to attract foreign investors. “When the economy was booming by 6-7%, the bourse was enjoying big turnover,” he added. To illustrate this, he said volumes half an hour into trade was just BGN 1,900 and not a single deal was struck within 22 minutes, a performance he dubbed an anti-record.

Bulgarian Banks Raise Interest Rates on Euro Mortgages

m.staneva — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:35:08 GMT

The interest rates on Bulgaria’s housing mortgages have increased for both lev and euro currencies in June, showed the latest figures by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

The rates on euro-denominated consumer loans have ticked up by 0.08 percentage points on a monthly basis. Only local-currency consumer loans have recorded a drop, to 12.67%. Thus, the average effective annual interest rates for home loans stood at 9.08% for levs and 8.51% for euro.

So far this year, the interest rates on Bulgarian mortgages denominated in the single currency have not manifested a clear downtrend or uptrend, bouncing up and down each month. Nevertheless, lev-denominated loans have displayed a more pronounced downward direction, falling from 10.39% in June 2009, whereas the euro-denominated mortgages bear exactly the same rate as a year earlier.

The downward movement of euro-denominated loans is being driven by the depreciating euro, according to bankers. Back in 2009, when the deposit war started to ease, they expressed desire to bring down the rates on both loans and deposits. However, they note that this hinges on the improvement of the broader economy, a development that would reduce both customers’ individual risk and economic risk.

At the same time, the interest rates on Bulgarian term deposits have returned to their autumn-2008 levels before the deposit war reached its peak. The average effective annual interest rate was 6% for lev- and 5% for euro-denominated deposits.

On an annual basis, deposit rates fell twice faster than loan rates, by 26% year-on-year for levs and by 23% year-on-year for euro.

The rates on local-currency housing loams shed 12%, while those on single-currency loans failed to go down.

For businesses, rates dropped 28% for deposits and 8% for loans.

Bulgaria Still Stands Chances to Attract Huge Investment by Austria's Voestalpine

m.staneva — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:33:28 GMT

The decision of the Austrian steel giant Voestalpine AG to make a large-scale investment in a new steel plant in the Black Sea region is still up in the air, the company told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

Voestalpine announced in early 2008 that it planned to invest EUR 5 B in the building of a steel plant in either Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey or Ukraine.

Bulgaria appeared to be the forerunner in the competition for attracting the massive Austrian investment with Bulgaria’s former Minister of Economy and Energy Petar Dimitrov and Alfred Dusing - Chief Financial Director of the steel department and member of the Board of Directors of the Austrian Steel Company Voestalpine - signing a memorandum of understanding back in 2008.

Also to attract the project, the former Bulgarian government even paid international law consultants BGN 300 000 to prepare an investment agreement and conduct negotiations with the Austrian company.

The inception of the global financial crisis, however, forced Voestalpine to postpone its decision until 2009 at first, and then even longer.

“It is still one to two years early to be discussing the enlargement of Voestalpine. We are not over the crisis,” Voestalpine Investor Relations Manager, Aesch Gerald told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

Although the Austrian steel giant has made some progress since the recession hit, shipment levels have yet to return to pre-crisis levels.

This must be achieved before Voestalpine can begin to discuss expansion outside of Austria again, Gerald stated.

If talks about the construction of the steel plant resume, Gerald said he is unsure whether Bulgaria will win the investment.

The future of the plant depends on the stability of both the Austrian economy and that of the chosen nation. Due to the shear size of the investment, the host country's economy must be strong enough for the government to provide support for the steel plant.

The massive investment was expected to create 4,500 new jobs and to indirectly employ some 25,000 people in the respective region.

ICT EXPO

a.pavlova — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Specialised exibition of information and communication technologies. The exhibition offers users and professionals the opportunity to get acquainted with the latest innovations in the ICT sector – peripherals, network and server solutions, telecommunication equipment, multimedia products, and business management and information security software.

Safety & Security

a.pavlova — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibiton will cover Security systems, Surveillance and control, Communications, Fire-alarm and fire-extinguishing equipment, Average security and personal protection devices, Transport vehicles. Experts from different ministries and specialized sections dealing with the development and operation of security systems, representatives of the business community, local authorities and NGOs will take active part in the conference.

International Technical Fair - Plovdiv

a.pavlova — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Every autumn the International Technical Fair exhibits the latest developments of the world's leading companies in machine building, automobiles, transport, information technologies, software, electronics, electrical engineering, construction, chemistry, power engineering, ecology, water management, etc.

Expolight

a.pavlova — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The latest innovations and achievements in the field of lighting. Exhibitors from different countries will present their products. The International Specialised Exhibition EXPOLIGHT will present not only technical innovations and vanguard solutions, but also qualified and professional assistance from design to realisation, responding to the highest requirements for safety, comfort and effectiveness.

Link

Sihre

jeni — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Specialized exhibition for hotel, restaurant and spa equipment and furniture

LINK