One of the first IPOs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in 2008 will be of Mecom JSC. The IPO of 10 682 800 new company shares at minimum price of BGN 2.2 and without price ceiling will be carried out in the second half of January. The exact date will be announced by the leading manager of the offering – United Bulgarian Bank JSC and the co-manager CB Allianz Bulgaria JSC. The increasing of the capital will be considered as successful if 10 million shares are registered and paid at least. If all the offered shares are registered, the minimum sum, to be accumulated, will be about BGN 23,462 million.
Source: Monitor (02.01.2008)

Bulgaria's Yutex Holding booked BGN 3.6 million consolidated net profit for the period January to September 2007, up 160% year on year. The strong result may be put down mainly to the higher financial income and the reduced financial costs of the company. Yutex Holding generated BGN 3 million financial income for the first nine months of 2007. The operating income of the company went up by 2.65 million to BGN 9.4 million as at September 30, 2007. Yutex Holding's business costs totalled BGN 5.7 million for the period January to September 2007, up by BGN 539,000 compared to year ago period. The financial costs of the company went down from BGN 132,000 as at September 30, 2006 to BGN 47,000 a year later. Yutex Holdings specialises in the management of Bulgarian and foreign companies. The stock price of the holding company went up by 0.29% to BGN 13.81 per share on Friday.
Source: Pari (07.01.2008)

The local financial regulator last week approved the prospectus for the upcoming secondary offering of Sopharma Trading, the drug distribution arm of Bulgarian drug marker Sopharma. The 30 mln lev offering is equal to the court-registered capital of the company, divided into as many shares with a nominal value of 1 lev each. The capital of the company was registered by the Central Depository in October 2007 and now it is about to be listed on the bourse. The free float is seen at around 10%.
Source: Dnevnik (07.01.2008)

The shares of Greek construction company Domokat will float on the Bulgaria bourse with an entry price of 3 levs, shows the confirmed secondary offering prospectus of the firm prepared by investment intermediary Capman. The company will list its court-registered capital of 1.69 mln levs, divided into as many shares with a nominal value of 1 lev. Trade with the shares will start on Jan 10. Domokat is building the Panorama residential complex in Sofia's Dragalevtsi borough. According to the prospectus, one residential building in the complex is inhabitable. Another one is under construction. The company plans to invest 7 mln levs in the next 4 apartment buildings in the complex on top of the 3 mln invested so far.
Source: Dnevnik (08.01.2008)

Bulgaria's financial regulator has approved the capital raise prospectus of real estate investment trust FairPlay Properties. According to a statement released by the Bulgarian stock exchange, the 50.70 mln lev capital of the company will be increased by 20% through the issue of 10.14 mln new shares. The issue price is 2.25 levs, pointing to potential proceeds of up to 22.815 mln levs if all shares are subscribed. That would enlarge the capital of the REIT to 60.84 mln levs.
Source: Dnevnik (08.01.2008)

Bonds worth BGN 375 mln were traded at the BSE in 2007. This is just 3.76 percent of the BSE turnover. An year earlier the bonds traded had total value of BGN 297 mln or 8.79 percent of the accumulative turnover of BSE in 2006. The highest turnover of the equities was in November and July – the transferred equities during these months were respectfully worth BGN 94 mln and BGN 60 mln. In 2007 the bond deals were 1,220 compared to 1,238 a year earlier.
Source: Standart (09.01.2008)

In merely a day the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE-Sofia) lost nearly a billion levs (1 euro = 1.95 levs). There was an unprecedented slump in all the listed stock indexes. The SOFIX blue-chip index dropped by 78.95 points to 1482.39, or, in other words, by 5.6 percent. It's been five years now since the last similarly massive collapse. The BG40 broad index got 6.32 percent lower causing the common market price of all securities that were being traded decrease by nearly a billion to 25.7 billion levs. This new major fall came as a continuation of the negative trend that began in November last year. The market capitalization back then surpassed 29.1 billion, and just two and a half months later the stock exchange has lost 3.4 billion levs. "BSE-Sofia has taken quite a plunge recently, but the situation is the same across the entire Balkan region, Konstantin Abrashev from BenchMark Finance commented for investor.bg.
Source: Standart (17.01.2008)

The more than 30-percent increase that the blue-chip Sofix index achieved for the whole year 2007 was erased in a few days in the beginning of 2008. Data of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) show that between December 21, 2006 and December 21, 2007 the index surged by 44.42%, from 1,224.12 to 1,767.88 points. However, since the beginning of January alone Sofix has slumped by more than 16% by closing all sessions on negative ground. The blue-chip index reached a peak of 1,952 points in October 2007. Three months after its all-time high, Sofix has lost nearly a quarter of its value (24.18%). Defined as a correction in the beginning, the drop has turned into a real market catastrophe for the past few trade sessions. The first crisis in the history of the Bulgarian capital market is now a fact. BSE's all four indexes registered the biggest decreases in their history in just a day. By falling for 11 sessions, Sofix reached its value of early 2007. The companies listed on the BSE have lost more than BGN 3 billion of their market capitalisation for two weeks. At the end of 2007 BSE's market cap amounted to BGN 28.99 billion. Since then it has slumped by a touch above 10% to BGN 26 billion. Analysts say that the decrease was triggered by the market fall on a global scale, which affected mainly the stock exchanges in Central and Eastern Europe. That made foreign investors withdraw, leaving a gap in the market. The decline is something normal and all market players should be aware of that, the chairman of BSE's board of directors, Viktor Papazov, said. In my opinion that provides excellent price levels for buying shares but that is up to each investor, he added. The correction is healthy and will not continue for long, the executive director of Elana Holding, Kamen Kolchev, pointed out. The drop was also influenced by the stagnation of fresh resource in January. I expect that the trend will change in the next few weeks, he added.
Source: Pari (18.01.2008)

The shares of Bulgaria's top 100 most profitable companies went down by 21.7% on the average on the Sofia Stock Exchange in the period from last November until January 16, shows a research of Investor.bg. This negative tendency started on the last day of October 2007 and continued until last Wednesday, when a record slump in the prices of their shares was registered. The ten companies that registered the most drastic devaluation of their shares are: Zaharni Zavodi PLC (-60.24%), Alfa Wood Bulgaria AD (-51.04%), Chimco (-50%), Asenova Krepost AD-Asenovgrad (-44.18%), Metizi JSC (-44.08%), Lesoplast PLC (-43.26%), HIDROPNEVMOTEHNIKA JSC (-42,81), Kremikovtsi JSC (-42.17%), Industrial Holding Bulgaria (-39.17%) and Elma (-37.62%). The average devaluation of these companies' shares over the past two months and a half was 45.46%.
Source: Standart (21.01.2008)

The plunge of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) in recent weeks brought to the fore the question as to what extent are technical analysis-based forecasts applicable. Most analysts believe that these methods are inefficient when it comes to the Bulgarian capital market. BSE's Sofix blue-chip index plummeted to under 1,600 points. The major players on the market, however, expected that this would be hard to happen. No one even suspected that the index may drop to under the 1,500-mark. The Sofix, plunged almost to 1,400 points in just two trading sessions. This is indicative of the fact that technical analyses are not working when it comes to the Bulgarian capital market. Part of professional investors, however, share a different opinion. The technical analysis shows the market sentiments primarily through stock price charts, Alexander Nikolov of Karoll said. The technical analysis is applicable anywhere in the world, according to Nikolov. The main weaknesses of the technical analysis stem from its hypotheses. One of the hypotheses, which has been empirically rejected, is that the stock prices move in trends. The lack of liquidity and the small turnover make the technical analysis inapplicable. The prices on the capital market should be influenced by the majority of investors, rather than by individual players or a small group of market participants, according to Konstantin Abrashev of BenchMark Finance. The Bulgaria capital market, however, does not meet these requirements. The slump in the value of the Sofix index may also be attributed to the foreign institutional investors. They are usually quick to withdraw from emerging stock markets, such as BSE, when the foreign stock markets are slumping. They close their positions oblivious to the fact that a similar move triggers a decrease in prices. They are not interested in selling at the highest possible price. This, however, does not make the Bulgarian capital market easier to forecast. It is actually the other way around.
Source: Pari (22.01.2008)

The slump of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) in early trade on Tuesday may be put down to the sealing of a number of share repurchase agreements (repo deals), stock brokers told the Pari daily. The Sofix blue-chip index was 11.53% down at 11 o'clock, while the broader BG40 index was a whopping 12.01% lower. The indexes clawed back in afternoon trade. Investbank was the most active player on the repo deals market, brokers said. Some 90% of Investbank's repo deals are sealed through investment intermediaries and the bank cannot monitor their development, according to Mincho Minchev chief dealer of the financial institution. Repo deals are used for the raising of short-term financial resources. The proceedings of such deals are traditionally reinvested in stocks. Similar deals create the effect of the domino. The price of the stocks purchased by the investor is going down. On the other hand the shares used as a security for the financial resources are also depreciating and may reach levels at which they may be sold by the bank. A similar chain of events triggered the domino effect on Tuesday. BSE's slump may also be put down to the foreign investors leaving the Bulgarian capital market. Only Bulgarian players have been dealing on BSE over the last few days, according to Konstantin Abrashev of Benchmark.
Source: Pari (23.01.2008)

The global and homefront stock market turmoil are putting a crimp in the yield figures of Bulgarian pension insurance companies, shows value per unit data released by the Financial Supervision Commission. The asset value of the funds inched down 1-2% on Tuesday alone, with very few funds posting declines of less than 1%. Some of them have lost more than 5% since the beginning of the year. The biggest losers are funds that reported above-average return for '07 and the voluntary schemes as they had the biggest exposure to the stock market in terms of investment.
Source: Dnevnik (24.01.2008)

Holding company Chimimport now owns 9.17% in Industrial Holding Bulgaria (IHB), one of the nation's biggest former privatisation funds, said the Bulgarian stock exchange. Chimimport is now among the biggest shareholders in IHB which owns companies like Bulyard Shipbuilding Industry and KRZ Port Burgas. Chimimport has also acquired 28.20% in Holding Nov Vek, the bourse said. The acquisitions are most likely related to the capital raises performed last year y IHB and Holding Nov Vek.
Source: Dnevnik (25.01.2008)

"The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE-Sofia) is now stable and a turnaround of trends might settle in," Tsvetoslav Tsachev,Elana Trading Chief Analyst said. Stocks prices soared to record highs on Friday. In one day alone the broad index BG40 increased by a whole 8.02 percent, and SOFIX added 6.19 percent to its value. Such increments have not been seen for the last five years. "Foreign investors stopped their sell-offs and as a result the Bulgarians started gaining the upper hand over BSE, causing the indices to shoot up," was Tsachev's additional comment.
Source: Standart (28.01.2008)

Investment fund Seres, one of the nation's most active buyers of agricultural land, said it is sticking to its plans to go public in '08. The shareholders of the company approved the listing last Fri. 'We will keep an eye on the market situation, awaiting the right moment to go public,' executive director Svetlan Stanoev told news agency SeeNews. Initially, the fund was targeting an IPO in the second quarter of the year before a sharp correction on the local and global stock markets caused many corporations to stop and rethink their IPO plans. The list of Seres shareholders includes Raiffeisen Centrobank, Firebird Management, Black River Asset Management, Mezzanine Management and Rosslyn Capital Partners.
Source: Dnevnik (28.01.2008)

Kontrax, one of the biggest IT companies in Bulgaria, considers listing on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), Yordan Yordanov, manager of the company, said. The funding raised on BSE will be used for the implementation of large-scale projects undertaken by the company in 2008. The company may also try to attract a strategic foreign investor. Talks are currently being held with companies from Austria, Germany and Greece. Kontrax raked in BGN 34.885 million revenue in 2007, up 44% year on year. The revenue generated from computer equipment sales accounted for 38% of the figure. The company is expected to generate BGN 55.4 million revenue in 2008, which would represent a 58% year on year increase.
Source: Pari (30.01.2008)

The trade with shares of Sopharma Trading JSC has started on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The first transactions were made yesterday with average price of BGN 5, as until now a total of 10 730 securities were transferred. The main shareholder is Sopharma, managed by Ognyan Donev with 92,82%, who is planning to increase the part of the free traded shares up to 15% through the second public offer on the Stock Exchange. The bourse code of the company is SFTRD.
Source: Monitor (31.01.2008)

Chimimport JSC has tripled its profit in 2007. The company registered 185 percent growth of the net profit in 2007 reaching BGN 83.3 mln compared to BGN 29.2 mln in 2006. His is shown in the unauditted unconsolidated report of the company presented to Bulgarian Stock Exchange – Sofia. Chimimport disposes of funds and money equivalents worth BGN 96 mln.
Source: Standart (01.02.2008)

The Bulgarian government has put off the privatisation of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), which is looking for a strategic partner, Reuters cited the chairman of BSE's board of directors, Viktor Papazov, as saying. The finance ministry, which holds 44% of the capital, has no plans to sell BSE for the time being, despite the strong interest demonstrated by foreign stock exchanges. The aim of the government is to improve the market liquidity and revive the capital market. According to Papazov, BSE has to find a strategic partner in order to become attractive and competitive. Interest in BSE's privatisation has been shown by the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, Stockholm, Athens, Nicosia, Vienna, Milan and Prague.
Source: Pari (11.02.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange chairman Victor Papazov doesn't want the government to sell off its minority stake in the exchange, the official said in an in interview with Dow Jones Newswires last week. Papazov added that any sale of the government's 44% holding in the BSE is unlikely, despite expectations to the contrary. 'Privatisation as such, is not of interest to us,' Papazov told the news agency on the sidelines of a conference in Athens. 'We are not unhappy with government ownership.'
Source: Dnevnik (11.02.2008)

Bulgartabac Holding against the duty free shops - this is the big deal, on which the partners in the tripartite ruling coalition shook hands in the resort town of Hissarya. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms consented to the closing of the duty free shops at Bulgaria's borders with Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey and their partner, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, gave up their idea of selling the Bulgartabac Holding at the stock exchange and agreed on that the company should be sold to a strategic investor. In pursue of a common goal - the successful completion of the Cabinet's term-of-office, each of the three partners in the ruling Coalition for Bulgaria agreed to compromise on many controversial issues. The MRF, for example, did not quite relish the idea of the establishment of a private health insurance fund and the Socialists said this would happen only gradually and not in the immediate future. Leader of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, said he would not demand the resignations of the ministers Daniel Vulchev (Education,) Veselin Bliznakov (Defence) and Nikolay Vassilev (Public Administration,) but insisted that the deputy ministers - dissenters in the NMSP party should be ousted from their posts. "We should complete our term-of-office not only with a happy end, as Mr. Dogan says, but with good results of a well-done job," PM Sergey Stanishev said in conclusion.
Source: Standart (11.02.2008)

Chimimport, Bulgaria's biggest holding company, has acquired 6.93% in Tatinvestbank in the republic of Tatarstan, said the Sofia stock exchange. The deal was described as a step towards a strategic investment by Alexander Kerezov, deputy chairman of the managing board of Chimimport. He dismissed as untrue reports that appeared in the Russian press, alleging that the Bulgarian holding company had acquired a 97% stake in Tatinvestbank.
Source: Dnevnik (13.02.2008)

Astera Cosmetics JSC will enter the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) approved the prospectus for the trade in shares of Astera on BSE. The issue that has been approved by the FSC amounts to BGN 1.7 million divided in as many shares with BGN 1 par value each. Astera Cosmetics manufactures tooth brushes and toothpaste. The company is not part of an economic group.
Source: Standart (19.02.2008)

Some 41% of the rights issued as part of the capital raise of local real estate investment trust FairPlay Properties, a unit of property developer FairPlay International, have not been picked up by investors and will be invalidated. Only 61,100 of the 20,830,880 unexercised rights were transacted at the February bourse auction. This means that if the residual rights are exercised and investors subscribe and then pay up the shares they are entitled to, the company will hike its capital by around 60% of the target amount.
Source: Dnevnik (20.02.2008)

Non-banking lender Easy Asset Management will IPO on the Sofia stock exchange by the end of 2008, BenchMark Finance, the investment intermediary in charge of the offering, said on Tuesday. The operation, which will employ a book-building procedure, will raise the company's capital by 18% to 3.35. The free float of the company after the IPO is seen at 15%, said BenchMark. It is poised to become the nation's first non-banking institution to go public. The proceeds will be pumped into the credit portfolio of the company with some allocations also for the development of new products and distribution channels, said Easy Asset executive director Stanimir Vasilev.
Source: Dnevnik (20.02.2008)

Non-banking lender Easy Asset Management plans entering the Sofia stock exchange, CEO Stanimir Vasilev. The listing will happen through the issue of new shares. The price will be determined by the market. The net profit of the company in 2007 is BGN 1.60 mln at BGN 7.1 mln income. The credits lend in 2007 are worth BGN 19.2 mln.
Source: Standart (20.02.2008)

Aroma JSC will increase its capital about three times, informed Lukan Lukanov, member of the Supervisory Board of the company. The decision was made by the shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting. The current capital of BGN 5,163,933 distributed in the same number of shares with nominal value of BGN 1 will reach BGN 15.5 mln. For each share will be given two free shares, added Lukanov.
Source: Darik Radio (21.02.2008)

Information chaos is looming large on the Bulgarian capital market. From March 1, 2008 all public companies have to publish information about their activities through some media channel. That will no longer be obligation of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). The bourse is adamant that from next month it will publish news through its X3 News system only of companies that have closed contracts with it. Thus, investors will have to read several media to find information about public companies. The new regulations comply with the European directives on capital markets. They do not expressly oblige companies to provide information to the stock exchange operator but only to the regulatory body. That is aimed at liberalising the market of information about public companies. However, according to the regulations of Bulgaria's only bourse operator, BSE, public companies have to submit news about their activities through X3 News. That in practice gives advantage to BSE's information system and makes it a monopolist in the distribution of information, which contradicts the European directives.
Source: Pari (21.02.2008)

The collapse of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in the past few months has increased Bulgarians' interest in balanced investment schemes, analysts say. People now prefer playing safe and reducing the risk, which will give them better returns in times of instability and market corrections. When the stock indexes decrease, investors should not sell their shares in panic, specialists advise. The choice of a conservative, balanced or high-risk profile depends on the condition of the market and the individual characteristics of investors. The assets of collective investment schemes in Bulgaria reached BGN 1.19 billion at the end of December 2007, twice the figure registered at the end of March. The number of funds rose from 98 to 140 over the same period. The good performance of stocks and the record increase in the value of indexes in 2007 shifted investors' focus to higher-risk schemes. The assets of funds investing predominantly in shares increased the most: from BGN 229.3 million in the first quarter to BGN 355.2 million at the end of the year, i.e. by more than 63%.
Source: Pari (22.02.2008)

Sopharma JSC has acquired 4 103 shares representing 1.46 percent of the Momina krepost JSC capital, informed the BSE. The transaction took place on 15 February 2008. Now, the direct and through related entities share of the pharmaceutical company in the Veliko Tarnovo-based firm reached 48.27 percent. The unconsolidated net profit of Momina krepost JSC for 2007 is BGN 182 thous. A general shareholders meeting will take place on March, 20. There is going to be a vote for the increase of the capital to BGN 1.69 mln by own resources.
Source: Darik Radio (25.02.2008)

Local real estate investment trust Agro Finance acquired 207.2 ha of agricultural land in January, shows the regular company bulletin submitted to the Sofia stock exchange. The fund assets committed to arable land now stand at 15.397 mln levs with the average acquisition cost at 2259,4 levs/ha. Some 92% of Agro Finance farmland is located in Northern Bulgaria.
Source: Dnevnik (25.02.2008)

Kaolin JSC’s economic group has accomplished sales revenues in 2007, amounting to BGN 117,6 mln, which is a rise of 30.5 % in comparison with the same period for 2006. The company, together with its subsidiaries keeps stable sales revenues accumulation rate in all sectors of its manufacture. The 2007 net gain for the whole group amounts to BGN 18.14 mln. Its foreign shares, mainly in Serbia and Ukraine generate the main share of the additional turnover; Kaolin JSC is the biggest producer of industrial minerals in Southeastern Europe. The group is consisted by six companies, 16 mines and 10 factories for kaolin, quartz gravel, clays, and limestone. Clients of the company are all big producers of glass, ceramics and porcelain in the region, namely: Ideal Standard, Khan Asparuh, Shisehdjam, Ekzashibashi, Yla glass, Saint Goben, Plikington
Source: Zastrahovatel (27.02.2008)

According to the annual report published by Bulgarian Stock Exchange the consolidated profit of Katex JSC for 2007 is BGN 14,556 mln. It has increased more than four times compared to 2006, when it was BGN 3,040 mln. There is an almost three times increase of the financial earnings, which reach BGN 15,75 mln for 2007 compared to BGN 5,398 mln for the same period of 2006. The income of sales decreased to BGN 16,44 mln. The total income of the company are BGN 32,2 mln.
Source: Darik Radio (27.02.2008)

Teletek Group, Bulgaria's biggest manufacturer of security alarm systems, plans to go public on the Sofia exchange by the end of 2008 or in early 2009. The Growth fund, a vehicle of private equity company Global Finance, is currently a shareholder in Teletek Group and plans to retain some of its equity holdings after the listing. The operation will mark the first example of an equity investor partially cashing out of a Bulgarian corporation through a bourse flotation. Selection is underway for an investment intermediary that will draft the IPO prospectus, said Teletek executive director Petar Polileev.
Source: Dnevnik (28.02.2008)

The shares of Agria Group Holding JSC will be traded with bourse code AGR, informed the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The emission is valued BGN 6.8 mln distributed at the same number of shares and representing the court-registered capital of the holding. The nominal value of each share is BGN 1. The free-float equities of the company traded at the stock exchange will be 25 percent of the company capital. The petition for public offereing of 1,700,000 ordinary shares from the Agria Group Holding JSC capital increase finished successfully on December 4, 2007.
Source: Darik Radio (29.02.2008)

The net earnings from sales for 2007 of Orgachim JSC are BGN 123,814 mln. This is BGN 25 mln more than 2006. Financial earnings of BGN 3,418 mln were made, which is lower than the last year’s result – BGN 8,7 mln. The data are from the consolidated report of the company submitted in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. There is a decrease also in the net profit for the period, which is BGN 5,129 mln, compared to BGN 7,893 mln for 2006.
Source: Zastrahovatel (05.03.2008)

Petrol holding JSC is no longer included in the SOFIX index, informed BSE. In the same time Corporate Commercial Bank JSC, First Investment Bank JSC, Lead and Zinc Complex JSC and Roads Holding JSC are added to the main bourse index. Following a decision of the management of the BSE six companies - Alcomet JSC, Oil and Gas Exploration and Production JSC, Favorit Hold JSC, Polimeri JSC, Emka JSC and Decotex JSC) are replaced in the calculation of the wide index BG40 by six other companies (Moststroy JSC, Corporate Commercial Bank JSC, Devin SPJSC, Aroma PLC JSC, Elhim-Iskra JSC and Lomsko Pivo JSC).
Source: Darik Radio (07.03.2008)

External pressure is dragging down the indexes of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), despite the good annual reports of public companies, a Pari daily's survey among leading Bulgarian investors shows. The blue-chip Sofix index has declined for three consecutive sessions this month: from about 1,430 points at the end of February to 1,382.24 on Thursday. Many professional investors believe that that is due to the insecurity on foreign financial markets, which discourages big players from returning to the developing markets.
Source: Pari (07.03.2008)

Mel Invest Holding JSC owns share capital in other companies of BGN 5,701 mln, the reports, submitted in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, show. The investments in mixed companies are BGN 1,725 mln, in associated companies - BGN 1,385 mln and BGN 2,591 mln in other companies, where the share is from 0,04% in Svinevadstvo-Stambolovo JSC to 23,6% in United Properties BG JSC. The capital includes 3,641 mln shares. The companies with more than 5% share are: Mel Holding JSC (7,49%), Velikoturnovsko Pivo JSC (21,95%), co-operation Zarno (5,99%), Hleboproizvodstvo i Targovia JSC (6,05%) and Mlekarevo - KPFS Coop (5,93%).
Source: Zastrahovatel (10.03.2008)

Belgium-based KBC Bank Limited has acquired new 22,859 shares of Economic and Investment Bank JSC, after nine physical and juridical entities accepted the trade offer for the equities purchase. This was announced by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the information adds that the propodes price per share was BGN 110.34. The foreign investor purchased 75 percent of Economic and Investment Bank for EUR 295 mln in September last year and in November KBC was allowed by BNB to acquire a majority stake in the bank. Tsvetelina Borislavova, chairman of the Supervision Board of EIBank, preserved her share of 22.3 percent and remains a partner of KBC in the Bank Sector in Bulgaria.
Source: Darik Radio (18.03.2008)

T he shares of Astera Cosmetics have been registered for secondary trade on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the bourse reported. Trade in the debut issue of the toothbrush and toothpaste producer will start on Tuesday, March 25, on the unofficial market, segment A. The company will acquire public status directly through a secondary public offering (SPO). The management decided to skip an IPO, because it wants to obtain a real market assessment first. Astera will offer investors slightly more than 1.7 million shares with a par value of BGN 1. The shares will be traded under the ticker AST. The majority shareholder in Astera Cosmetics is Lukan Lukanov with 90% of the capital. Dimitar Lukanov and Mariyka Andreeva own 5% each. Andreeva is executive director of the company. Lukan Lukanov is chairman of the board of directors of Astera and member of the supervisory board of Aroma.
Source: Pari (21.03.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange announced that trade in Sila Holding JSC rights will start on march 31, Monday. The deadline is April 11. The bourse code will be R1HIS. The offered shares will be 1,999,492 with nominal and emission value of BGN 1. The proportion of the issued rights and the new shares is 1:22. The company intends to increase its capital from BGN 90,886 to BGN 2,090,378. The capital will be increased only in case that at least 1,001,000 new shares are registered and paid. The auction for used rights will be on April 22. The starting date for right registration is March 31 and the final date is May 13.
Source: Darik Radio (21.03.2008)

Implementing the electronic platform of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Xetra, is the most important task of the Bulgarian capital market. That emerged from the strategy for development of the capital market until 2010, which was approved by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). The platform, which is expected to be installed in June, will attract more foreign and local investors to the BSE, the document reads. The BSE will start introducing different financial instruments, including derivatives. To improve clearing and settlement, the BSE will look for partners, the strategy reads. In practice that means looking for an alternative to the Central Depository, which is the only company at present that provides clearing and settlement. Within two years the BSE has to propose steps for launching margin trading and short sales on the Bulgarian capital market.
Source: Pari (24.03.2008)

Despite the almost permanent downfall of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) indexes, the number of optimists has risen, reaching 47%, Pari daily's Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) indicator shows. However, 26% of the interviewed brokers feel that Sofix will continue its negative trend until Easter in late April, compared with 6% a weak earlier. Another 27% of the respondents do not expect much change. The main reason for the rising number of pessimists is the movement of BSE's leading measurer, which dropped from 1,344.23 to 1,185.50 points during the week. The reasons provided by optimistic brokers are backed by the latest index movements on the largest world markets. Most indexes began to win back positions during the latest sessions.
Source: Pari (24.03.2008)

The leading index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the blue-chip Sofix, registered a record-breaking drop by 12.05% for a week. On March 14, its value was 1,344.23 points, compared to a staggering 1,182.58 points at the end of Friday's session. The last time the index stood at this level was on December 12, 2006. This time, the market downfall is caused by the behaviour of local players, because participation of foreign shareholders in Bulgarian public companies has already been brought to a minimum. Redemption of shares by mutual funds and closing of repo deals are the main reasons for BSE's decline in the past week, analysts said. This leads to mass sales of the most liquid shares.
Source: Pari (24.03.2008)

It seems that the Bulgarian investors are experiencing a kind of a market collapse and, very irrationally, they are selling their stocks at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The domino effect manifest itself at full sway and the big players will hardly regain their confidence any soon," said investment consultant Vladimir Malchev for Investor.bg. In a week alone, the broad index BG40 collapsed by 11.61% down to 338.71 points. This has been the lowest value of BG40 since August last year. The SOFIX index collapsed by 11.81% in a week alone, down to 1185.50 points, and BGTR30 slumped by 9.31% to 781.33 points. BGREIT went down by only 2.56% to 95.86 points. "Still, there is some room for optimism, especially if Bulgaria's economy keeps its steady development," Vladimir Malchev says. However, some brokers are not so optimistic about the situation at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. According to finance expert Krassimir Batsinov, the trade will keep its current levels in the next few weeks and it may even go down a little bit, and his colleague, Bozhidar Pavlov, says that the situation may improved as late as at the end of the summer.
Source: Standart (24.03.2008)

In connection with a taken decision with Minutes on 21.03.2008 for corporate bonds issue we inform you that a debenture loan was concluded with the following parameters: - Number of the bond issue: 1 (first) - Bonds’ type: ordinary, dematerialised, registered, interest bearing, freely transferable, unsecured bonds - Currency of the issue: euro - Amount of the bond loan: EUR 2 500 000 - Number of bonds: 2500 - Term to maturity: 36 months - Coupon: fixed interest to the amount of 7.50 per cent - Period of interest payment: 6 months - Right of the Issuer to repay the principal in advance: On the dates of the last 5 interest payments. - Repayment of the principal: one-off, on the maturity - Initial date to subscription: 08.30 AM on 24.03.2008 - End date to subscription and payment: 16.00 PM on 24.03.2008 - Date of conclusion of the debenture loan: 25.03.2008 - Initial binds’ offering: private offering - Investment intermediary: TBI Invest JSC - Secondary trade: BSE – Sofia JSC
Source: investor.bg (26.03.2008)

The upward trend taken by the Bulgarian capital market last week boosted the optimism of professional investors, Pari daily's inquiry among leading brokers, Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS), shows. A total of 69% of the interviewed have positive expectations about the movement of the blue-chip Sofix index in the next four weeks. The share of pessimistic players has shrunk to 6% from more than a quarter of the brokers the week before. According to 25%, the leading index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange will remain unchanged.
Source: Pari (31.03.2008)

Papas Olio, the Yambol-based producer of cooking oil, said it will likely shelve its IPO plans until 2009. The plans to go public in 2008, not yet approved by the general meeting of shareholders, were announced last year but shareholders have been getting cold feet amidst the current stock market turmoil. 'The company may IPO before the end of 2008 if the environment returns to normalcy but 2009 remains the more realistic target,' said Tsvetelina Peneva, the company CFO.
Source: Dnevnik (01.04.2008)

Bulgaria's Sofix is the biggest loser in Europe for the first quarter of 2008. The blue-chip index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange was 1,737 points on January 3, while on the last day of March its value was 1,254 points. Thus the index tops the ranking with a slump by 27.8%. It is closely followed by Bucharest's BET, which fell by 27.6% between January and March, and Croatia's CROBEX (down by 27.08%). The global financial crisis did not miss the West-European indexes, but their drop was much smaller. According to analysts, however, the huge losses posted by western financial institutions show that the trend is unlikely to change soon. Although the crisis does not influence the regional markets directly, the stock exchanges in Eastern Europe are the most affected by the lack of resources.
Source: Pari (02.04.2008)

Bulgaria's Balkan Services and Financial Market Service, a subsidiary of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), have authored a project for a new platform allowing investors to compare financial parameters of public companies directly. The name of the platform is X3Analyses. Data will be presented graphically, without the need to rummage through various files, Dimitar Dekov, consultant at Balkan Services, said. The platform allows users to compare various indicators of public companies: profit, revenue, expense, etc. for specified time periods. It is even possible to produce forecasts using X3Analyses, Dekov said. The price of the product will be announced next week.
Source: Pari (03.04.2008)

Bulgaria's Sofix is the biggest loser in Europe for the first quarter of 2008. The blue-chip index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange was 1,737 points on January 3, while on the last day of March its value was 1,254 points. Thus the index tops the ranking with a slump by 27.8%. It is closely followed by Bucharest's BET, which fell by 27.6% between January and March, and Croatia's CROBEX (down by 27.08%). The global financial crisis did not miss the West-European indexes, but their drop was much smaller. According to analysts, however, the huge losses posted by western financial institutions show that the trend is unlikely to change soon. Although the crisis does not influence the regional markets directly, the stock exchanges in Eastern Europe are the most affected by the lack of resources.
Source: Pari (03.04.2008)

The net profit of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange JSC for 2007 is BGN 5,251 mln, which is a rise of 21,5% compared to the net profit in 2006. The annual earnings of the stock exchange are almost 100% more, reaching up to BGN 9,556 mln. The achieved increase of the earnings is due to the growth of the revenues from commission chàrges for concluded deals on the stock exchange, which are 85% of the total earnings.
Source: Monitor (03.04.2008)

Brokers are not unanimous in their opinions about the impact of the low trading volumes on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Pari daily's survey shows. According to some leading professional investors, that is a sign of a downward trend. Others, however, believe that the low volumes are natural in the conditions of a market decrease. The prevailing part of brokers contribute the low volumes to the withdrawal of investors and the unwillingness of Bulgarian institutional and individual players to take high risk. This could become a problem if the low volumes and the market drop continue, which would cause huge losses to investors.
Source: Pari (04.04.2008)

Optimism dominated among brokers despite the strong fluctuations in indexes on the capital markets in Bulgaria and abroad during the week, Pari daily's inquiry among leading brokers, Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS), shows. A total of 71% of the interviewed predicted a rise in the blue-chip Sofix index over the next four weeks. Only 29% of the brokers said that the index value will remain unchanged. None of the participants in the inquiry was pessimistic about the movement of Sofix stock prices.
Source: Pari (07.04.2008)

The most liquid company for number of deals in March is Chimimport JSC, shows the monthly news bulletin of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. There are 3 096 deals totally for 938 751 shares of total value BGN 8,9 mln. Second in the ranking is Eurohold Bulgaria JSC with 2 073 deals for 590 997 shares of BGN 3,15 mln. totally. The other companies in the top 5 are Monbat JSC (1 830 deals), Enemona JSC (1 754 deals) and Roads Holding JSC (1 555 deals).
Source: Monitor (08.04.2008)

Brokers are divided in their expectations about the introduction of Xetra, a new electronic trade system of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), a survey by Pari daily showed. The platform will become functional by mid-2008. Technological innovation on the BSE may raise the market's liquidity and attract foreign investors. Xetra will not affect the market considerably, because it is really only the software that will change, Neli Petrova of KD Securities said. According to Martin Kosturski of BenchMark, the new platform will certainly facilitate the access of investors to shares of Bulgarian companies and help put an end to the liquidity crisis. BSE's cooperation with Deutsche Boerse and the launching of Xetra will connect the Bulgarian capital market to more than 600 investors and almost 5,000 brokers, BSE's development strategy for the period until 2010 shows. However, some market players fear that the new platform will lead to serious problems at the beginning, caused by mistakes in data entry. Deutsche Boerse's software is more technologically advanced than the BSE system. Xetra will allow investors to enter new types of orders such as iceberg and stop-loss orders. Xetra will also allow segmentation of the listed companies according to various criteria. Whether Bulgaria's capital market will succeed in attracting foreign investors and take advantage of the options offered by the new platform will depend on Bulgarian players' ability to adapt quickly and make the right decisions.
Source: Pari (09.04.2008)

The increase of the capital of Alfa Credit REIT will be considered successful in case at least 500 thous shares are registered and paid. The emission to be issued is of 650 thous shares, and the issued rights will be the same number. The nominal value of the rights is BGN 1, while the issue value is BGN 1.16. The bourse code for the emission trade will be R3ALCR. The capital increase will be served by Bulbrokårs SPJSC and the accumulation account will be opened at DSK Bank.
Source: Darik Radio (11.04.2008)

Professional investors in Bulgaria have been swept by mass optimism after the blue-chip index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Sofix, managed to remain above 1,200 points. None of the interviewed 20 leading investment intermediaries expects that the index will drop in the next four weeks, Pari daily's Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) indicator shows. Optimists make up 72% of the respondents, the other 28% say that Sofix will remain unchanged. To a great extent brokers' optimism is due to the first-quarter reports of public companies that will be announced soon. The implementation of the Xetra system for trade on the stock market will also facilitate the access of foreign investors to Bulgarian shares and increase liquidity.
Source: Pari (14.04.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange Shrinks by 6.5 Billion Levs The volume of the trade at the Bulgarian stock exchange has shrunk by 6.57 billion levs (1euro=1.95levs) since the beginning of this year. At the end of last year, the market capitalization at the Sofia Stock Exchange was about 29 billion levs, whereas at the end of last week the market value of all securities traded in at the stock exchange shrank to 22,412 billion levs. The main reason for this decrease in trade volume is the world financial crisis that started from the USA and affected many world markets, including the Bulgarian. Over the past few months most of the foreign investors withdrew their capitals from Bulgaria's stock exchange because of the lack of fresh capitals and the continuing devaluation of the US dollar. As a result, the shares at the stock exchange lost much of their value and the indices went down. From the beginning of this year until last Friday, Bulgarian leading indices SOFIX and BG40 went down by 32,64% and 32,13%, according to information of investor.bg. This means that the Bulgarian stock exchange is one of the least active in the world. Only the indices at the Croatian and the Chinese stock exchanges have slumped more than the Bulgarian indices.
Source: Standart (14.04.2008)

The past week was a hard time in the history of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Bad news provoked some pessimism about the trend of the leading index: the blue-chip Sofix, Pari daily's inquiry for the upcoming month among leading brokers, Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) shows. Optimism pervaded the previous two inquiries, as almost everyone expected a rise in the index. Now, pessimism is back. The slump of Sofix caused at least 5% of the brokers to forecast a decrease in the indicator over the next four weeks. The number of optimists dipped to 68%. Fluctuations on world markets provoked slightly more than a quarter of the respondents to forecast that the trend will remain unchanged over the next 30 days.
Source: Pari (21.04.2008)

The Bulgarian capital market proved once again that it does not fit into the common world practice. Contrary to expectations, political turmoil and the forthcoming government reshuffles in no way affect trade on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), an inquiry by Pari daily among leading brokers and analysts shows. This is to prove that Bulgaria's market is still underdeveloped and trade is almost independent of outside processes. The political crisis has no repercussions on the BSE, because indexes registered record-breaking slumps even before the events, financial expert Andrey Pramov said.
Source: Pari (21.04.2008)

Orgachim, the Bulgarian producer of coatings and varnish, slipped to a net loss of 182,000 levs in Q1 '08 after surging to a net profit of 1.97 mln levs a year ago, show the unconsolidated figures of the company filed with the Bulgarian stock exchange. The downside came from a sharp y/y decline in financial gains which fell from 2.35 mln in a year ago to just 143,000 levs in Q1 '08. Sales growth has decelerated from 50% between Mar '06 and '07 to around 20% in Q1 '08. Operating profit came in at 187,000 levs. Sales abroad have increased their share of total sales to 64% from 53% a year earlier. Sales jumped 28% to 124.93 mln in '07 with net profit tumbling 16% to 6.76 mln.
Source: Dnevnik (07.05.2008)

The net earnings of BTC, Bulgaria's dominant landline telecom carrier, slumped 26.45% y/y to 31.32 mln levs in Q1 '08, mainly due to a spike in interest costs, shows the consolidated financial statement of the company. Interest expenses on a 600 mln lev syndicated loan, taken out to refinance an outstanding syndicated facility, almost doubled to 11.8 mln levs. Revenues ticked down 0.6% to 254.4 mln levs due to slight softening of its landline and cellular businesses. A year ago, the company posted a 0.9% increase in revenues. The financial statement shows that the wireless division continues to be a loss-maker.
Source: Dnevnik (07.05.2008)

Q1 sales at Petrol, the nation's biggest fuel retailer, zoomed up 91.55% y/y, shows the unconsolidated financial statement of the company. Sales revenues topped 301 mln levs, including 119 mln levs from product sales with the remainder booked under miscellaneous. Operating costs rose 64 y/y to 250 mln levs. The company noted that although sales were up in terms of volume, profit per kg of sold fuel remained relatively low in Q1 '08 due to an increase in state fees and excise duties and increased competition.
Source: Dnevnik (07.05.2008)

The Q1 profit at local insurer Euroins has taken a hit from bourse investments. Despite an increase in premium income to 19 mln levs, the financial result of the company fell 85% to 115,000 levs. The company held a 5.25% share of the general insurance market by end-Mar. Insurance claims rose 30% to 5.7 mln in Q1. Euroins is part of the insurance division of local Eurohold Bulgaria. The combined premium income of the four insurers in the group stood at 39.2 mln in Q1. Eurohold Bulgaria posted a net profit of 37.6 mln levs by the end of Mar.
Source: Dnevnik (07.05.2008)

An emission under the ISIN code BG1100008082, issued by Bioiasis JSC – Sofia, will be introduced for trade on May 8, 2008. A decision of the board of directors of Bulgarian Stock Exchange placed the emission in the Unofficial Financial Instruments Market, Share Unofficial Share Market, Segment A. The emission consists of 200 thous shares of nominal value BGN 1 each. The shares will use bourse code BIOA.
Source: Banker (08.05.2008)

The cigarette factories Tsigarena fabrika Plovdiv JSC and Slance Stara Zagora Tabak JSC will be privatized through the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, representatives from Bulgartabac Holding JSC said. According to them the two factories are working at loss, and they should be privatized. The factory in Plovdiv was closed yesterday. The dismissed workers of the Plovdiv cigarette factory will receive compensations amounting 1,8 gross monthly salaries for each year they have worked at the plant. The total amount of the compensations to be paid is BGN 8 mln.
Source: Novinar (13.05.2008)

Sparky JSC – Rousse informed that the shareholders will have to decide ona fourfold increase of the company capital from BGN 3 mln to BGN 12 mln at the general meeting on June 28. Another agenda at the meeting will be the allocation of BGN 900 thous into dividends for 2007. In case a quorum is not reached, the meeting will take place on July 15. Sparky JSC reported a net unconsolidated audited profit for 2007 of BGN 18.775 mln. The net sales income increased 53 percent to BGN 48.547 mln. During the first quarter Sparky JSC reported an unconsolidated profit of BGN 1.712 mln compared to a negative BGN 130 thous a year earlier.
Source: RuseInfo.net (14.05.2008)

Four companies will start trading on the unofficial stock market segment A of the Bulgarian bourse on May 26, the stock exchange said in a press release. These are drug maker Unipharm, producer of chemical products Balkan Progetti Management, real estate investment trust City Properties and Europa Line Group, an IT contractor.
Source: Dnevnik (17.05.2008)

For the third time since the launch of Pari daily's Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) indicator market players have shown unanimity in their expectations. Nearly 94% of the interviewed professional investors say the blue-chip Sofix index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange will increase in the next four weeks. Such optimism was voiced only in March 2005 and May 2007. Only one broker thinks the index will remain unchanged. The introduction of the Xetra trading platform from June 16, which will allow investors to trade in the shares of 400 banks and brokerage houses from 18 European countries, definitely creates optimism. The positive expectations are further enhanced by the recovery of the big international stock markets.
Source: Pari (19.05.2008)

Optimistic expectations prevail among professional investors on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) for a third week in a row. Some 76% of the brokers consulted by Pari daily said that the blue-chip index Sofix will increase in value over the next four weeks, Pari daily's Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) indicator shows. None of the participants in Pari daily's inquiry said that the main BSE index will go down. Only 24% of professional players said that market consolidation and flat indexes are to be expected over the next month. Brokers' expectations of the previous two weeks were confirmed and Sofix increased by 10%, thus compensating for about a third of its decline since the start of the year. Market analysts expect BSE consolidation to continue until the launch of the new trade system Xetra, planned for mid-June. After that, increased trade volume and more active participation of foreign investors is expected. Investors withdrew from the Bulgarian market during the world stock exchange crisis of the first months of 2008.
Source: Pari (26.05.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia JSC registered the changes in the management bodies of Alfa Credit REIT. In the new composition of the board of directors for a term 5 years, come Iglika Dimitrova Logofetova - Chairman, Emilia Marinova Panova - Deputy Chairman and independent member of the board, and Rositsa Milkova Lisichkova - Executive Director. The company is represented by the Executive Director Ivan Lisichkova.
Source: Banker (30.05.2008)

Positive attitudes continue to prevail among professional investors on Bulgaria's capital market, Pari daily's Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) indicator shows. Some 69% of those asked said that the leading index, the blue-chip Sofix, will continue rising over the next four weeks. On the other hand, optimism among stock exchange players is dwindling. For the first time over the last three weeks, market optimists are below the 70-percent threshold, after previously crossing the 90-percent line. Almost 8% of the respondents forecast a negative trend for Sofix. Market fluctuations caused 23% of professional investors to predict flat levels for the leading index over the next month.
Source: Pari (02.06.2008)

Formoplast JSC filed an application for transfer of its issued shares fromUnofficial shares market, Segment B, to the Unofficial market shares, Segment A, reported the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Formoplast JSC increased its capital through own funds - from BGN 223,465 to BGN 3,798,905 by issuing 3,575,440 shares of nominal value BGN 1. A major shareholder in the company, which manifactures plastic products is Eurohold Bulgaria JSC, which holds 88.49% of the capital.
Source: Darik Radio (05.06.2008)

The pessimistic expectations about the blue-chip Sofix index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange increased twice in a week only. Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry among professional investors shows that 17% of them expect the index to decrease in the next four weeks. A week ago only 8% of the brokers were pessimistic. At the same time the group of optimists remained almost unchanged: 66% of the interviewed, compared with 69% the week before. Nevertheless, the share of upbeat investors was well below the record level of 90% achieved in May.
Source: Pari (09.06.2008)

Exchange will not work on Thursday and Friday - 12 and 13 of June. The reason is the introduction of new trading platform Xetra on June 16. Two working days in advance of stock exchange transactions would not have. This is necessary for completion by the Central Depository of all transactions concluded through existing stock codes.
Source: Standart (10.06.2008)

A tiff between the Sofia stock exchange operator and the Bulgarian financial regulator is threatening to delay the migration to a new Xetra trading platform licensed from Deutsche Boerse in 2007. The original launch deadline – June 16, is no longer workable because the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) is yet to sign off on the trading rules and does not intend to do so over the next couple of days. The switch to the new platform is not possible without regulatory approval. On Tuesday morning, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange said it had done its bit to ensure the platform goes live come next Monday and that everything is up to the FSC now. The watchdog said the bourse operator had failed to integrate into the draft handbook of trading rules any of the regulatory recommendations. The regulator further added that even if that glitch is disregarded, a wait period of at least two weeks is prescribed by law
Source: Dnevnik (11.06.2008)

Sopharma Buildings and BGI Group shares started trading on June 25 Shares emissions of BGI Group and Sopharma Buildings REIT will be introduced for trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on Wednesday (26 June), according to a release of the Exchange. The emission of Sopharma Buildings is divided into 649,990 shares with nominal value of BGN 1. The bourse code is 4OX. The Sopharma Buildings investment of money, securities raised by issuing, real estate (real estate securitisation), etc. The emission of BGI Group is divided into 9 mln shares with nominal value of BGN 1 as well. The bourse code is BOH. The BGI Group line of business is purchase and sale of real estates, trade representation and intermediation, etc.
Source: Darik Radio (13.06.2008)

The market capitalisation of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has risen by 89.28%, statistics of the Financial Supervision Commission show. Financial intermediation accounted for 30.10% of total BSE capitalisation on December 31, 2007, data show. This segment is also leader in the free float with 38.04%. The blue chips included in Sofix took up 31.37% of BSE's total market capitalisation at the end of 2007. Some 29.17% of deals were closed with shares of the most liquid companies. In 2007, blue chips formed 19.07% of turnover and 20.92% of total trade on Bulgaria's capital market.
Source: Pari (17.06.2008)

Financial Supervision Commission approved the addition of the Ulpina REIT prospectus The Financial Supervision Commission approved the addition of a prospectus for the initial public offering of shares of the initial mandatory increase in capital of Ulpina REIT. The addition provides information about the termination of a credit line with Harsev & Co Co. in relation to the decision of the FSC and acquired by the company for taking on a new contract for leasing. At the end of November last year the Board of Directors of BSE-Sofia decided to terminate the shares public offering of the capital increase of Ulpina REIT. The reason for the definitive closure of public offer of shares of the REIT is the refusal to confirm a supplementing the prospectus for public offering of Ulpina REIT. The reason for the FSC was that the company has contracted for a credit line with a non-banking institution. According to legal provisions, the company is entitled to take credits only by banking institutions, and furthermore, the contract has been concluded during the license procedure and the Commission has not been informed. The founders of the company are Harsev & Co Co. with 35% of the capital, BenchMark Fund 2 Equities JSC with 30% and Factor IN JSC with 35% of the capital.
Source: Darik Radio (19.06.2008)

In connection with the participation of Pazardzhik-BT JSC in the procedure for the sale of 67% of the total capital of Factory Duhana Mostar JSC, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the announcement of Pazardzhik-BT JSC for a winner in the procedure on direct negotiation in the legally declared deadline, yesterday was signed a contract. It was signed by the Privatization Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Pazardzhik-BT. The factory in Mostar has long traditions in the manufacture of cigarettes. Pazardzhik-BT is an entirely private company, after in 2006 Bulgartabac Holding sold its whole share of the capital of 85.24% to Chessteam SPLTD.
Source: Agency Focus (19.06.2008)

The first week with the new trade platform Xetra divided the expectations of leading investors concerning the movement of the leading index, the blue-chip Sofix, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry among professional investors shows. The percentage of optimists for the movement of Sofix has already crossed the psychological threshold of 50%. Only 46% of brokers said that the measurer will rise in value. Some 47% expect consolidation around the present value of blue chips. The share of pessimists is down for the first time in three weeks, to 7%.
Source: Pari (23.06.2008)

Trace Group Hold JSC founded two new companies - Trace Commerce SPLTD and Trace International SPLTD. Chairman of both new companies is Manol Denev. Trace Commerce will be engaged in commercial activities in the country and abroad, trade representation and intermediation and any other activities not forbidden by law. The second company - Trace International will perform construction activities, sales of building materials and products, trade operations in the country and abroad, as well as any other activities not forbidden by law. Trace International SPLTD will perform the operations of the holding outside the country. Both companies have capital of BGN 5,000.
Source: Insurance.bg (23.06.2008)

Compensatory instruments traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) are in a state of collapse. They are unattractive and are traded rarely. Only casual incidents such as the public auction of June 16 manage to raise their prices. There is need for more assets, in which one may invest with compensatory instruments, Valentin Hristov, chairman of the Association of Compensatory Instrument Holders, told the Pari daily. In his opinion, the best decision is to draw a list for trading in non-payment instruments, which would include minority shares from the prohibitory list. The volume of compensatory instruments in circulation on June 20 was BGN 589 million. For comparison, instruments worth BGN 2 million were used in the June 16 auction. Thus, to solve the problem, some 250 such auctions will be needed, or at least assets worth that sum. Even that modest sum of BGN 2 million managed to stir the market and the price of compensatory instruments went up by about 15%. After the launch of Xetra, trade is carried out in nominal values instead of percentage points, which is still difficult to understand for some individual investors.
Source: Pari (25.06.2008)

Indexes of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) registered their sharpest one-day decline since April 2008. The wave that swept the market came from Asia and Western Europe. Shares of financial companies suffered the most, with shares of the most liquid companies selling off at largest volumes. The plunge of Sofix blue chips is the most serious since April 1, when the index was down by 3.44%. Companies included in Sofix returned to their values of May 7, when the index closed at 1,131.82 points.
Source: Pari (25.06.2008)

Bulgartabac Holding, the Bulgarian tobacco monopoly, Wednesday said it will start the bourse privatisation of its Stara Zagora and Plovdiv cigarette factories on July 11 and 5, respectively. The government owns 78.18% stakes in both companies. Both packages will be broken up into a majority and a minority stake. The 1.77% minority stake in Slants Stara Zagora goes on sale at the Sofia stock exchange on July 11. The minimum proceeds from the offering are seen at around 394,000 levs with shares priced at 18.90 levs. The majority stake in the cigarette maker will be offered in 900,000 share lot on July 14. The 3.12% minority stake in the Plovdiv-based cigarette maker goes on sale on July 15. The minimum price for the 33,682 shares is 24.90 levs. The majority stake of 810,000 shares will be offered to investors on July 16 together with any unsold shares from the minority stake. Both offerings are priced way over the current market valuation of the stock. Slantse Stara Zagora closed at 11.14 levs on Wednesday. Plovdiv BT traded a day ago at around 10 levs per share. The Bulgartabac supervisory board decided in early May to sell the two cigarette factories together with their licences for the processing of tobacco and the manufacture of tobacco products. The factory in Stara Zagora shut down in April while the Plovdiv factory was closed in May this year. There is no certainty on the most likely fate of the remaining Bulgartabac cigarette factories, in Sofia and in Blagoevgrad. The management of the company said that unless it goes private by the end of 2008, cigarette production may have to be concentrated in a single factory location. All four cigarette factories finished the first quarter of 2008 in the red. Bulgartabac currently has a 63% share of the domestic cigarette market which has been consistently slipping since prices were deregulated in early 2007.
Source: Dnevnik (26.06.2008)

Trade in rights of Agroenergy REIT starts on July 9 The starting date for trade in rights of Agroenergy REIT – Sofia is July 9, said BSE. The final date is July 18, and the schedule for rights transfer and registering of the shares from the innitial capital increase of the company is respectfully 7.07-22.07 and 7.07 - 13.08. The account will be opened in Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) SPJSC. The investment intermediator is Bulbrokårs SPJSC. Agroenergy REIT /AS5/ owns 500 thous shares before the raise. 18 mln rights have been issued, the same number as the offered shares. The rights would be traded under the bourse code AS5A. The par value of the new shares is BGN 1, while the emission value is BGN 1.10.
Source: Darik Radio (02.07.2008)

Company reports for the first half of 2008 will not affect the movement of public company shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), professional investors told the Pari daily. Since the start of the year, the attention of market players has been pointed at news coming from international capital markets. In the conditions of a bearish market, it is normal that positive news are ignored by investors, analysts said. Public banks are expected to have the best results during the second quarter. Data posted by the banks show steady growth despite the global financial crisis.
Source: Pari (04.07.2008)

The last date for deals with bonds of United Bulgarian Bank JSC on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, as a result of which the acquirer has a right of interest payments, is July 8, Tuesday. The next interest payment on the emission under ISIN code BG2100011043 will be on July 12. The coupon will be 6.625 per cent and all bondholders, registered in the Central Depositary as to July 10, would have the right to receive interest payment.
Source: Banker (08.07.2008)

The general shareholders meeting of Golden Sands JSC has authorized the management and representatives of the company to sign with the subsidiary Parkstroy-Golden Sands LTD a deal for the acquisition of real estates in the resort. The value of the deal is a total of BGN 5.777 mln, VAT not included. The first property is situated on 7.218 da, and the second – on 9.417 da.
Source: Darik Radio (08.07.2008)

The SOFIX index of the most traded stocks at the exchange lost 44,04% since October 15, 2007, profit.bg informed. For the same period nearly half of the 19 indexed companies dropped over 50%. On Friday SOFIX closed below the psychological level of 1100 points and ended at 1092,49 points. This is the lowest value ever since November 17, 2006.
Source: Standart (14.07.2008)

Investors exchanged just 1,599 shares of the minority package of Tsigarena Fabrika Plovdiv on the first day of trading. The price at which lots changed their owner reached BGN 28.87, which represents an increase by 15.49%. Bulgartabac Holding has offered a minority package of 33,682 shares and a majority package of 810,000 shares through the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The minimum price per share of the minority package was set at BGN 24.90. Securities offered through the capital market make up 78.18% of the capital of Tsigarena Fabrika Plovdiv.
Source: Pari (16.07.2008)

Shares of companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) are excluded as an investment possibility for money in the future so-called Silver Fund that is counted on to enhance the country's pension reform. The fund will be allowed to invest up to 70% of the accumulated funds only in shares of companies with an investment-class credit rating assigned by an internationally recognised agency. This condition automatically excludes Bulgarian public companies. The Silver Fund Act was approved by social partners on July 16. The condition of investing only in shares abroad is a European practice, the ministry of finance stated. The aim is to ensure that taxpayers' money is not dependent on state-issued debt.
Source: Pari (17.07.2008)

ZMM-Metalik JSC – Pazardzhik shareholders decided to raise the company capital to BGN 11 mln through a public offering of shares during the extraordinary shareholders meeting. The Board of Directors has to prepare and apply at the Financial Supervision Commission the prospectus, to sign a contract with an investment intermediary, as well as to take all technical and legislative actions on the raise. It would be the second increase of the capital within a month after the shareholders voted earlier to make it BGN 8.442 mln from BGN 201 thous. The majority shareholder of ZMM-Metalik is Technologies and Innovations Corporation Saedinenie JSC – Sofia, which holds 67% of the plant.
Source: Insurance.bg (18.07.2008)

The introduction of multifunds on the Bulgarian market presents chances for significant progress in the field of voluntary pension insurance, after tax reform and the stock exchange downfall cooled down interest in this area in the past year. According to latest data, the nine voluntary pension companies in Bulgaria manage slightly more than BGN 639 million. The main change to be introduced by the new system is the division of the uniform portfolio in three parts according to risk: balanced, high-risk, and low-risk. Thus, consumers will be able to choose by themselves how their money will be invested, which will also determine profitability at the end of the investment. This innovation will stimulate a lot of people to redirect their savings to this type of funds, analysts said. Experts point out at three main advantages: lower taxes, lower fees and increased security. Up to 10% of social security contributions invested in voluntary funds are tax-exempt. Thus, the net assets managed by those funds at the end of 2009 are expected to reach more than BGN 800 million. Pension insurance companies feel satisfied and hopeful that after more than two years of talks and discussions, we are about to finally witness an expansion of opportunities for personal investment choice when it comes to securing additional pension income, Sofia Hristova, executive director of Allianz Bulgaria.
Source: Pari (21.07.2008)

Today the bonds of Agro Finance REIT were introduced for trade. The emission is for EUR 2.5 million, divided into 2,500 ordinary bonds with a nominal value of EUR 1,000 each. The interest is set to 7.5% per year, with a fixed 6-month period of interest payments. The term of the bond loan is 36 months, with a date of signing of the loan on March 25, 2008 and maturity on March 25, 2011. In June the third increase in capital of Agro Finance REIT was successfully completed. Shareholders exercised their rights, and those who purchased rights during their sale on the stock exchange at the public auction held on 29 May, have registered a total of 16,081,754 new shares of emission value BGN 1.20 each. The whole emission value of the registered shares worth BGN 19,298,104.80 was paid on the special account of Agro Finance REIT. As a result of the third successfully increase, the capital of the company grew from BGN 16,138 million to BGN 32,220 million, with a formed premium reserves by the issuing of shares - from BGN 17,687 million to BGN 36,985 million.
Source: Darik Radio (22.07.2008)

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has scheduled for September 23 a general meeting of shareholders to sort out the mandate of its current board of directors. The terms of two directors on the four-member board - Bistra Ilkova and Viktor Papazov, expired in early 2007 while those of the other half of the board - Lyudmila Elkova and Todor Breshkov, expired in early 2008. The general meeting is called a week after a Dnevnik story revealed irregularities in the board's mandate entry in the commercial register. It came to light that the board was registered for a new five-year mandate through 2012 without the mandatory prior sanction from shareholders. The bourse management blamed the controversy on the online form provided by the Registry Agency which they claimed lacked clarity. It was announced last week that the financial regulator is also investigating the registration snafu. In late June this year, the association of investment intermediaries demanded the sacking of the bourse management. The subsequent general meeting of shareholders rejected the proposal but failed to do anything about the mandate of the board which had already expired back then. Board members with expired terms are allowed to stay on until officially removed by the general meeting of shareholders. The vote on the fate of the board at the upcoming meeting could go either way. The finance ministry, a 44% shareholder in BSE, declined to comment on Friday. At the last meeting of shareholders, the finance ministry backed the incumbent management of the bourse.
Source: Dnevnik (28.07.2008)

The management of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) expressed its absolute disagreement with the statement of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) alledging that the institution did not support the state interest in the sale of tobacco factories in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora, a statement to the media said. BSE's board of directors has no right to guarantee the financial interests of any market player, including the state. Nor is the stock exchange obliged to secure maximum profitability for any bidder. Besides, the BSE has no influence on the way the seller has chosen to place its shares, the institution said. BSE's statement was supported by several investment intermediaries. They told the Pari daily that the stock exchange may only issue recommendations, but it may not decide on the sales mechanism.
Source: Pari (28.07.2008)

Growth registered by the leading index on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange over the past week boosted optimistic attitudes among professional investors, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry showed. Some 59% of those asked declared their assurance that Sofix will rise over the next month. The lack of clear direction caused 35% of professional investors to forecast consolidation of the index. A total of 6% showed pessimism concerning the movement of the blue chips over the next four weeks. Last week, Sofix followed up on good news coming from developed markets and closed the week with a minimum rise of 0.7%.
Source: Pari (28.07.2008)

OTzK profit BGN 2 mln after ‘Other Slaes’ for BGN 11 mln Lead and Zinc Complex JSC – Kurdzhali (OTzK) reported a 90% slump of its net profit during the second quarter of 2008 to BGN 888 thous compard to BGN 9.4 mln during the same period last year. During the second quarter of 2008 sales reached BGN 42 mln against BGN69 mln a year earlier, which is a drop of 39.2%. The report of the company shows sales in the report section ‘Other’ for BGN 11.3 mln during the half-year, which is BGN 11 mln more than in H1’2007. No details what has been sold were disclosed in the interim report on the operations. Since the beginning of the year the material supplies in the plant have increased by BGN 30 mln to reach BGN 93 mln. As a whole, the drop of the net earnings for the first half-year of 2008 is 86.6% to BGN 1.9 mln, while the drop of the net sales is 34% to BGN 80.3 mln.
Source: investor.bg (31.07.2008)

Bulgaria's Central Depository on Thursday suspended for three days trading with the share of local cosmetics maker Aroma in compliance with a court injunction. All transactions that were in progress at the time the injunction notice was received by the Central Depository will not be settled before trading resumes, said Lyubomir Hristov, executive director of the depository. The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), the Bulgarian Stock and Exchange (BSE) and the Central Depository said the injunction move harms the interests of the minority shareholders as they have no stake in the stand-off between the parties to the dispute. The FSC and the BSE said the injunction decision was taken without prior consideration for all relevant legislation. The injunction order was issued at the request of Krasimir Mitev, a former business associate of Aroma supervisory board chairman Lukan Lukanov. Mitev owns local cosmetics company Rubella.
Source: Dnevnik (01.08.2008)

The combined market cap of the shares traded on the Bulgarian stock exchange has retreated to mid-2006 levels, down a massive 10 bln levs since October 2007. The market cap of the nation's public corporations fell to 19.9 bln levs on Monday to account for around 30% of GDP, down from 56% of GDP in late 2007. The nine months of bear market are taking their toll on the blue-chip index SOFIX which tracks the 19 biggest companies on the bourse. The index hovered around the 1,000-point mark on Monday, dipping briefly below that psychological level. The index has lost over 40% of its value so far in 2008. News agency Bloomberg has reported that the Bulgarian stock market is among the top 3 worst performers in Europe this year. Analysts are reluctant to point to a psychological threshold the would trigger a turn-around. Boris Bonkin, a portfolio manager at pension company Allianz Bulgaria, said the withdrawals made by mutual fund investors are further undermining the market which in turn leads to lower mutual fund yields that prompt further withdrawals. The local mutual fund market contracted by 8% in July with net assets falling to just below 800 mln levs, shows data of the asset managers. The decline in mutual fund asset value is 28% for the first half of 2008. The market stood at 1.15 bln levs at the end of 2007. The speculators have bailed on the market, leaving it to the long-term investors but the problem now is the low liquidity of the bourse, said Bonkin. Stoyan Nikolov, a broker at First Investment Brokerage House, pointed to the increased bourse turnover as one indication that a reversal of the negative trend could be around the corner. He noted other potential turn-around signals as solid financial reports and the stabilisation of the commodities and FX markets. Foreign investors could come to the rescue of the stock market as they would increase liquidity and buying momentum, said Bonkin. However, the recent EU sanctions have dissuaded foreign buyers as they signaled a loss of confidence at the highest level.
Source: Dnevnik (05.08.2008)

Optimistic mood among professional investors concerning the movement of the leading index Sofix over the next 30 days is rising, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry showed. Some 59% of those asked believe that the blue chips will increase in value. Past fluctuations justified the opinion of 29% that the index will stay flat. Like last week, 12% of brokers expressed a pessimistic mood and said Sofix will decrease.
Source: Pari (11.08.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia JSC - Sofia has appointed Extraordinary Meeting on 23.09.2008. Meeting agenda includes: changes within the management bodies.
Source: Registry Agency (12.08.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia JSC - Sofia has appointed Annual general meeting on 30.06.2008. Meeting agenda includes: adoption of the Annual Report for Year 2007, changes within the management bodies.
Source: Registry Agency (12.08.2008)

Last week instruments for BGN 32.36 million were traded off on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. A week earlier, securities valued at BGN 20.7 million had been transferred. The lowest turnover was reported on Thursday (BGN 2.6 million), and day later securities for BGN 14,877 million had been traded. The turnover on Monday reached BGN 3.79 million, while on Wednesday and Tuesday respectively it was BGN 5,078 million and BGN 6,021 million. During the last week the first purchase in the history of exchange of margin was accomplished (securities of Eurohold Bulgaria JSC for BGN 15 780 were bought) and short selling was made (100 shares of Chimimport JSC for BGN 8.50 each were sold).
Source: Standart (18.08.2008)

The main drawback to the local market for compensation notes – the lack of attractive and large enough equity stakes, was once again highlighted in the list of packages in 82 companies that will be privatised in deals where the notes will be eligible medium of payment. No of the stakes exceed 10% of the respective company's capital. The list also includes equity packages that the state will use to settle restitution claims and which may never hit the market. Compensation notes worth 1.823 bln levs have been issued on the market so far with 1.234 bln already mopped up in various privatisation deals. Investors and individuals continue to hold some 590 mln levs in compensation notes. The bulk of the compensation notes in circulation were absorbed during the bourse privatisation of a minority stake in incumbent telecom BTC and in a couple of other bourse offerings, including that of the Varna thermal power plant. The holders of compensation instruments were hoping to cash in during the privatisation of stakes in companies like NMB, Boyana Film and Kintex. The Boyana Film studio is already private while the sell-off strategy for Kintex is yet to be approved. In the case of national maritime carrier NMB, the government has cut the equity that will be sold against compensation notes from 30% to 3%.
Source: Dnevnik (21.08.2008)

Bulgarian Stock Exchange presented the first fund in Bulgaria, focussing its activities in the field of renewable energy sources - Capman green energy fund JSC. The fund will finance the construction of plants producing energy from water, wind, sun and biomass. There are funds for research and development. The plan for the next five years of the management is Capman green energy fund JSC to establish itself as the largest Bulgarian fund focused on this type of investment.
Source: Insurance.bg (21.08.2008)

Two more companies - Capman green energy fund JSC and Bulgari Reserve Properties REIT, have been traded since yesterday on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Also since then, bonds of Aluplast SPLTD have been traded as well. Capman green energy fund JSC is investing in renewable energy sources and Bulgari Reserve Properties is a company with special investment purpose. Since the beginning of the year 22 companies have offered their shares for trade on BSE-Sofia. The total amount of the distributed dividends is BGN 608 mln.
Source: Monitor (22.08.2008)

Optimists about the growth of blue-chip Sofix decreased to 52% for seven days, the regular inquiry of Pari Daily shows, compared to 80% a week before. Brokers explain the change in mood with the growing crisis on the foreign capital markets. Last week was very crucial for the financial companies all over the world. Among the brokers 34% expect the leading index of BSE to keep its present position. The ultra pessimists are about 8%.
Source: Pari (25.08.2008)

The recovery of part of the lost positions of the blue chips last week brought some optimism among professional investors, regular survey of Pari Daily showed concerning movement of the leading Sofix in the next 30 days. Among brokers 67% expressed opinion that the index will continue its upward movement next month and 33% forecast flat level of Sofix. For the first time in three months there are no pessimists on the market.
Source: Pari (01.09.2008)

Two Irish representatives, Jerald Bernard Burn and John Patrick Power, would enter the Supervision Board of Bulgarian-American Credit Bank JSC. This would be voted by the shareholders of the lender at the extraordinary general meeting on October 20, 2008. In the end of last week the Bulgarian American Enterprise Fund (BAEF) finished the sale of 49.99 percent of the shares in Bulgarian-American Credit Bank to Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. (AIB) for a little more than EUR 216 mln. As a result, the share of BAEF in the capital of the bank is now 3.89 percent.
Source: Insurance.bg (04.09.2008)

Bulbrokers integrates in its platform Metatrader 4 and a possibility for trade with shares at the Bulgarian stock exchange. In that way investors may use it for both trade with currency and contracts for difference, as well as with Bulgarian shares simply with a common account. The company won’t accumulate additional taxes for the use of its platform, as commissions for deals will be standart for each specific type of deal. Metatrader 4 offers quotations, graphics, news and analyses in real time, together with a full package of instruments for technical analyses. The platform enables testing of strategies and experts in past periods, opening of simulated demo account, as well as an access to a full archive of deals and effected operations.
Source: Dnevnik (04.09.2008)

Overgas Holding JSC sold its 91.31% share in the ex-privatization fund Nash Dom - Bulgaria Holding JSC. Andrey Tenev, chairman of the Board of Directors of Nash Dom - Bulgaria Holding and ex-official at Overgas Holding, has acquired the whole share in the gas company. Overgas has transferred all the 5.005 mln shares for BGN 7.46 mln in three non stock exchange deals. For the share in Nash Dom - Bulgaria Holding, Tenev also gave his 0.3% share in Overgas. The sale aims at focusing the engineering and gas company on its primary business, the companies said. As for now, tenev does not intend to make an auction offer and delist the company from the BSE.
Source: Dnevnik (04.09.2008)

"Bulgartabac's cigarette plants in Sofia and Blagoevgrad will be sold separately on the stock market, but on one condition: that the buyers are strategic investors," Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy Petar Dimitrov told The Standart yesterday. "This is the only possible way to denationalize Bulgartabac Holding under the adopted strategy," he said. "We have still not decided yet on the buyer of Kremikovtsi Steelworks," Dimitrov added. Who is going to get Kremikovtsi ownership will be the state's call, since it is the company' largest creditor. The first general meeting of the creditors of the steel company will be summoned on Septermber 26 when they will have to choose the next owner. But before that, all of them have to declare that the company owes them money to be included in the list of the assignee in bankruptcy and approved by the court. Bulgaria already claimed back 700 million levs (1 euro = 1.95 levs) of principal amount and interests, which the company, up to this point, has been considering as a state aid. And that's not all: the smelter must also repay old liabilities to the state-owned enterprises such as the National Electrical Company, Bulgargaz and the State Railway Company (BDZ).
Source: Standart (08.09.2008)

The safeguard clause on Bulgarian Civil Aviation dropped. The decision Bulgaria waited for 618 days was taken yesterday in Brussels and will take effect after its publication in the Official Journal of EU. The resolution was expected on September 3 as it was provided by schedule but a ceiling that felt down in the building of the European Commission postponed it with five days. The shameful barrier for the Bulgarian aviation was raised on December 20, 2006 by Regulation 1962 of the EC. It put Bulgarian carriers out of the united aviation business for 20 months. As a result the development of Bulgarian aviation was blocked and foreign carriers were enabled to profit.
Source: Standart (09.09.2008)

The companies in the blue chip SOFIX index generated 35.36% of the market capitalization of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in second-quarter 2008, under financial regulator data. The firms struck 38.06% of the bourse transactions speaking for 36.90% of the turnover and 19.15% of the total trade volume. The companies in the broader BG40 accounted for 45.11% of the market cap. They made up 57.48% of the deals, 61.89% of the turnover and 57.17% of the volume. BGREIT companies formed 3.03% of the market capitalization. Their stocks changed hands in 1.88% of all deals on the bourse, or 5.08% of the turnover and 17.88% of the volume. The firms tracked by BGTR30 chopped 41.57% off the market capitalization. Their shares made 45.75% of all transactions, 59.95% of the turnover and 57.35% of the trade volume.
Source: Dnevnik (09.09.2008)

Sofix, the oldest index measuring trade on Bulgarian stock exchange, yesterday reached the lowest level in two years. The benchmark of the blue-chip index hit 966 points, which was the level recorded for the last time in October 2006. On January 2008 Sofix was 1737 points, so from the beginning of the year till now it has lost 44%. The stocks of Road Holding, one of the Sofix companies, were affected the most. They dropped by 5% to BGN 15.3 per share. This is most probably due to repurchase agreements, brokers comment. According to them, if that is the case for the fall yesterday, then today we should witness normal levels even growth on the stock market. They say that the drop on Wednesday was to a great extend surprising. Pari Daily's survey among the main companies points out that they have not taken into account serious reverse takeovers of shares from funds they are managing. All big world markets report a drop on their stock exchange markets. The financial hurricane from America swept away a lot of financial giants, affected the whole world and shook investors' trust in capital market. The crisis struck the west European countries that are the main business partners of Bulgaria, Hristo Vladimirov from TBI Asset Management said.
Source: Pari (12.09.2008)

Bulgaria’s blue-chip SOFIX plummeted to another two-year low on Thursday closing more than 2.0 pct lower at 966 points with only two of its components moving north. The broader BG40 was the second biggest loser shedding nearly 2.0 pct to 236 points. The other market indicators also closed in the red. The turnover failed to reach the 2.5 mln levs benchmark and the market capitalisation contracted to 19.77 bln levs. “It was another tough session. It’s highly probable that the drop will continue on Friday”, commented Dimitar Georgiev, broker at Elana Trading. He forecast trading in the coming days will be swayed by various factors including the sentiments on the global markets. “The expected deals with the new stocks of Holding Patishta may weigh further on SOFIX although the starting date has not been set yet”, Georgiev added. The official marker saw no gainers on Thursday and drug maker Sopharma was the only one reign in its share price flat. Business conglomerate Chimimport and Petrol, Bulgaria's biggest fuel retailer, sank more than 4.0 pct. First Investment Bank and agricultural conglomerate Zarneni Hrani Bulgaria were the most liquid companies for a second day in a row. The downturn on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange coincided with murky global markets. Nearly all Asian and west European indices finished in negative territory and the bearish wave was expected to spill over to Wall Street.
Source: Dnevnik (12.09.2008)

The crisis on the capital market whipped off almost BGN 10 billion from the capitalisation of public companies in Bulgaria. At the beginning of 2008 Bulgarian Stock Exchange started with BGN 28.99 billion stock market valuation of companies whose shares have been listed. After the latest collapse last week, investors assess the companies on the stock exchange at BGN 19.6 billion. The drop of one third in the market capitalisation would have been much higher but for a series of new issues. Although great part of them is REIT with low market capitalization, they increase to total sum of the stock market valuation. The leading blue-chip Sofix hit the bottom on Friday reaching its lowest level in almost three years reaching 960 points. According to the executive director of Sopharma drug maker Ognyan Donev, the levels to which the stocks of some companies fell are extremely attractive for increasing their share. This is the right time for investors in real manufacturing companies. The shrinking of the price balloon might stimulate investment in real economy. Despite the collapse of some companies last week, there were no reverse takeovers from mutual funds. This is a good sign: the small stock exchange player, though scared, has started to invest reasonably. No one dares to predict the movement of the capital markets in near future both in the country and abroad and this is the great problem.
Source: Pari (15.09.2008)

Panic at the financial markets A total panic overtook the financial markets yesterday. Oil fell to USD 92 per barrel, indices crumbled, a lot of commodities, like lead, aluminium, gold, fell as well. Central banks tried to save the day by injecting billions of USD into the currency markets. Oil registered its biggest daily drop down for the last 4 years to USD 92. Only 2 months ago the ‘black gold’ was traded at USD 147 per barrel. The fear from the impact of the US financial crisis was the reason. Meanwhile, LUKoil Bulgaria raised the end price of the gasoline by 1.24%. Investors started selling and as a result the price of lead fell 4.5%, aluminium fell 3.2%, zinc fell 5.2% and gold was traded at USD 778.63 per troyounce in Singapore.
Source: Sega (17.09.2008)

The stock exchange sessions in Tokyo, London and New York started with a new wave of bankrupts yesterday. Bulgarian stock exchange didn't remain untouched and the blue-chip Sofix dipped by 4.90% to the record-breaking 885.42 points while the broad BG40 of the most traded stocks recorded a daily loss by 6.08% to 213.49 points. The negative news became the reason for S&P and Moody's to lower the credit rating of AIG, fearing that the biggest insurance company will not be able to cope with the financial problems. The company will find it difficult to devise a means of refunding and will have to sell assets. AIG needs about USD 70 billion after reporting a loss of USD 18 billion for the first half-year of 2008. On Monday AIG shares dipped sharply by 61% to USD 4.76. Instead of 100%-200% rise on the stock market as last year, at present there is downturn, Apostol Apostolov, president of Financial Supervision Commission, said. He didn't want to forecast when the end of the crisis is expected. Bulgarian stock exchange is heading downwards owing not only to the fall of the leading markets but also to the lack of liquidity, brokers comment. According to them big investors are now buying while small ones, both in Bulgaria and abroad, are in panic and start selling. The assets of managing companies have melted by 37% since the beginning of 2008.
Source: Pari (17.09.2008)

Shares of Momina krepost JSC and PRC REIT will be introduced to the BSE for trade, as well as an emission of Agroenergy REIT. Momina krepost increased its capital by own funds – from BGN 281 thous to BGN 1.69 mln. Sopharma is a shareholder in Momina krepost holding 48.27 percent of the capital directly or through related entities. The capital increase of PRC REIT is from BGN 650 thous to BGN 5.85 mln through an emission of 520 thous new shares of par and emission value BGN 10. Agroenergy REIT emission is for BGN 18.5 mln allocated into the same number of shares and par value of BGN 1. The REIT will be focused on investments in agricultural land. Agroenergy REIT is part of Venture Equity Bulgaria SPLTD.
Source: Darik Radio (30.09.2008)

The Bulgarian stock exchange (BSE) also opened with a record fall off. The leading indexes started with a collapse of somewhat over 7%. The shares of Moststroy, Eurohold, Lead-Zinc complex, Corporate Commercial Bank are greatly decreasing. The turnover exceeds 1 million BGN. A little after 10 am the fall off of SOFIX is 5.70% to 800,87 points. BG40 decreased with 4.97% to 194.86 points. The fall off at BGREIT is 3.83% to 77.76 points. BGTR30 sank with 6.09% to 522.73 points. To remind, Wall Street witnessed a historic fall off this night after the House of representatives rejected the USD 700 billion rescue of the financial industry. The session in the United States finished with a loss of USD 1.2 trillion.
Source: news.bg (30.09.2008)

Panic overtook Bulgaria's Stock Exchange Sofia yesterday and the trade session opened with massive sales. As a result, the market capitalization of the stock exchange went down by about half a billion levs to 16,4 billion levs (1euro=1.95levs). The panic was caused by the United States House of Representatives (one of the two chambers of the United States Congress), which turned down the plan for rescue of the financial system, which cost was 700 billion US dollars. This decision caused the US stock exchange to collapsed, and the stock exchanges in Europe (Bulgaria's included) promptly followed suit. Ten minutes after the trade session opened the turnover was 780,000 levs. SOFIX lost 7.81% of its value and BG40 - 8.12%, investor.bg informed. "The foreign investors keep on selling their shares, which causes panic among the local natural persons. Maybe the news from the USA will have some influence on the Bulgarian economy, but it will probably materialize in a long term, and it could hardly be the reason for such rampant withdrawal of capitals from the market, Preslav Kitipov, representative of Eurobank and FG Bulgaria told the Standart.
Source: Standart (01.10.2008)

Unlike last year's October boom at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), when the overall worth of what was traded scored an all-time record of 29 billion levs (1 euro = 1.95 levs), BSE's market capitalization on Friday, October 3, 2008 plunged into a nearly twofold recession to the mediocre 15,5 billion levs. Initially, stock prices' downward drift was regarded as a natural sobering up of the market following a period of feast for investors. However, as the US and European markets crashed and foreign investors withdrew from the Bulgarian market, all indices went into a free fall and in just a single year the official BSE index SOFIX lost 61 percent of its value, decreasing from 1943.08 last October to 751.67 points.
Source: Standart (06.10.2008)

The trade in Ulpina REIT – Sofia shares will start on October 16. The emission is allocated into 650 thous shares of par value BGN 1 and bourse code UPY. The Board of Directors of BSE made a decision to stop the public offering of shares in Ulpina REIT from the capital raise last November. The reason was a refusal for confirmation of an addition to the prospectus for public offering of Ulpina REIT.
Source: Darik Radio (08.10.2008)

Sofix, the leading index on BSE, fell to a four-year low. On Friday it dropped to 585.39 points and the collapse on the stock market deleted BGN 500 million from the market valuation of the capital market to BGN 13.9 billion. As a result of the global crisis, Sofix dipped by 22% only for a week and 40% for a month. Panic is back on the market, brokers comment, and it stays on the way of realistic valuation of companies.
Source: Pari (13.10.2008)

The large-scale transactions of the blue-chips last week made a great number of brokers on BSE believe in the rise of Sofix, regular survey of Pari Daily shows concerning the expectations of investors about the move of the leading index in the next 30 days. Altogether 57% of them forecast positive trend in the next month. Only 14% support the pessimistic mood and 29% expect consolidation around the present values.
Source: Pari (13.10.2008)

The crisis on BSE led to unseen sales of blue chips. For the first ten days of October Sofix lost 26.1% while 12 of the 20 companies represented in the index had lower share drop, analysis of Pari Daily shows. The lowest slide was registered by Lead-Zinc Complex AD, Kardjali, and M+C Hydraulic with a drop of share value by 6.9% and 8.7% respectively. Neochim occupies the third place by losing 11.3% of its share values.
Source: Pari (14.10.2008)

Bulgaria's stock exchange registered an upward trend of major indices yesterday. Already at noon SOFIX upped by 12,97%. This is the highest jump within a day alone since the establishment of the index in October 2000. The optimism at the stock exchanges is slowly returning around the world, too after the USA and Europe took measures for overcoming the financial crisis.
Source: Standart (15.10.2008)

The shares of Railway Infrastructure Holding Company AD will be listed on the stock market on November 28, 2008 and will bring fresh BGN 300 million to the capitalisation of BSE. It has been the 36th company to become public since the beginning of the year and the third one to realise initial public offering (IPO). All other new members of BSE were directly listed after second public offering.
Source: Pari (17.10.2008)

The Bulgarian stock exchange went down by 10 percent within a week alone. The investor's negative moods dominate the trade. On Friday the oldest market index SOFIX closed at 548,02 points - its lowest level since August 2004. Since October 2007 the market lost the stock growth that has been accumulated in the previous three years. In the past five working days SOFIX lost 11,4 percent, investor.bg informs. BG40 and BGTR30 indexes dropped by 10,15 percent and 10,36 percent to the level of 149,62 points and 384,61 points respectively
Source: Standart (27.10.2008)

T he yet another difficult week on the capital market reduced the optimists two times, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry showed. A total of 27% of those asked expect a rise in Sofix, last month the percentage was two times higher. The same per cent have pessimistic expectations against 16% a week ago. Almost 46% of the professional investors think the blue-chip index will stay flat.
Source: Pari (27.10.2008)

The larger share of foreign investments has been withdrawn from the market. 'What we witness are sales at the levels that could hardly be economically grounded,' said chairperson of the Financial Supervision Commission, Apostol Apostolov in an interview with investor.bg. During his talks with heavy foreign investors Apostolov was informed that the explanation for this withdrawal was the fact that the stock markets of Eastern and Central Europe - Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, etc. - are too small, while the attention is currently focused on the big markets. The investors pull back from the countries where there is no need for fresh cash. According to Apostolov, there are no problems with the insurance companies as they invest less compared with their colleagues operating on the bigger markets.
Source: Standart (29.10.2008)

Almost half of the professional investors forecast Sofix to keep the present-day levels, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment (BBS) inquiry showed. For the first time in months such a great number expects a standstill. One third of those asked expect a rise in the leading index on BSE and the pessimists register a slight growth compared with last week to about 20% at present.
Source: Pari (03.11.2008)

Over the next three months the shares of many companies at the Sofia Stock Exchange will lose at least fifteen percent of their value, said Boncho Ivanov, portfolio manager at UBB Asset Management. He took part in a seminar dedicated to the global financial crisis and the Bulgarian capital market, organized by the club of the finance journalists ?AAA?. To his words, the trade at the stock exchange has reached its lowest level and it will remain at the bottom for at least a year, after which time SOFIX will start crawling up. The entrepreneurs had better put up with their lower profits, because any attempt to boost them in the current conditions on the market may lead to even greater losses,? Ivanov said. The exodus of foreign investors from Bulgaria has caused the trade volume at the stock exchange to shrink drastically over the past two months. The investors are moving to better known markets. The markets in East Europe and Scandinavia offer better recoverability than these in the USA, Veneta Ilieva from the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank said. To her words, Europe has buffered the effects of the crisis, thus helping the US economy to recover faster.
Source: Standart (03.11.2008)

Shares worth a total of BGN 2.39 billion were traded on the BSE floor in the first ten months of the year (1 Jan – 30 Oct), shows statistics. Some 592 million shares traded hands in 354,000 deals during the period. We remind that the number of deals for the entire 2007 was 490,000, in which 1.11 billion shares traded hands. 2007 annual turnover stood at BGN 9.94 billion. Back in 2006 turnover amounted to BGN 3.38 billion. The number of transactions was 213,000 in which 764 million shares were traded. 14 intermediaries report turnover of BGN 100 million or more during the period concerned. Unicredit Bulbank top the list, followed by Investbank and FFBH. Eurobank EFG Bulgaria and Karoll are also in top 5. Karoll is the leader in terms of number of transactions, followed by BenchMark Finance, Elana Trading, Ug Market and Popular Kasa 95.
Source: profit.bg (06.11.2008)

Despite the negative week on Bulgarian capital market, the optimists about the blue chips returned, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment inquiry showed. 46% of leading investors expect Sofix to rise in the next month. For the first time in the last few weeks the pessimists dropped to 9%, i.e. below 10%. The instability of the market makes 45% of investors to believe that the blue-chip index will remain flat.
Source: Pari (10.11.2008)

The Privatization Agency will offer shares of 85 companies on the 19th centralized public auction on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, announced the agency. Among the privatization packages are residual government shares in Balkancar-Ruen JSC, Vinprom-Razgrad JSC, Plovdivska konserva JSC, Oranzherii-Gimel LTD, Kaliakra hotels JSC and others. Shares of 69 companies will can be bought against compensatory instruments. Six will be allowed combined payment - money and compensatory instruments, and ten companies will be offered only for money. The remaining 1 percent share of the state in Lukoil Neftochim JSC will be offered on the auction as well.
Source: Dnevnik (10.11.2008)

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange set a bleak world record on Tuesday when SOFIX of the blue-chip companies crashed 10.74%, the steepest among 90 markets. Bulgaria’s oldest index retreated to levels of 63 months ago almost wiping off the gains of the oldest investors who have been bold enough not to dash for thee exit. The other key index, the broader BG40, tumbled by a double digit to close the session below its 100 points base value where it started on February 1, 2005. The global financial market mess has evaporated USD 30 trillion from capital markets around the globe.
Source: Dnevnik (19.11.2008)

The trade at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange Sofia slumped by ten percent following massive sales and a gigantic for the size of our stock exchange turnover of 29,6 b levs. The broad index BG40 plunged by 10,52% to just 100 pts. Over the past twenty trading sessions, the BG 40 companies lost 42% of their market value. Yesterday, the broad index plunged to 96,7, Investor.bg reported. As a result, the total market capitalization of the companies that have their shares traded in at the Sofia Stock Exchange fell to 11,347 b levs. SOFIX plunged by 10,74% to 322,6 pts. Over the past 20 session SOFIX slumped by 49,4%. This has been the lowest level of the index since August 1, 2003. The indexes BGREIT and BGTR30 slumped by 3.59% and 8.64%. The drastic slumps are caused by the withdrawal of foreign investors from the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, probably due to liquidity problems, Nikola Tsokev, broker at EFG Securities Bulgaria, told investor.bg. The slumps at the world markets have spread in Bulgaria and they are felt more strongly here, Bulbrokers analyst Maria Atanasova said. To her words, the slump at the stock exchange is to some extent caused by the discouraging news coming from the industrial sector and the withdrawal of big foreign investors.
Source: Standart (19.11.2008)

The current global economic downturn will set off a wave of sellouts of inefficient Bulgarian companies. The first to succumb to the new trend will be firms of big holding companies fetching tiny portions of the total profits and revenue. Also on the table will be companies with struggling foreign parents, according to analysts. “About 90 per cent of the revenue of a large part of Bulgaria’s major economic structures is formed by one or two companies out of a 10 or 20 altogether. And if this was not an issue a year ago now managers are scratching their heads about structure,” said Biliyan Balev, managing partner at Forem Consulting. Company shake-ups are already underway, said Asen Hristov, supervisory board chairman of Eurohold Bulgaria.
Source: Dnevnik (24.11.2008)

Until November 2008 the total marketed turnover on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange is BGN 2.667 billion, becomes clear from the data of the institution. The number of transactions is 384 thousand, while subjects of trade are 649.49 million lots. The investment companies involved in more than 10 thousand transactions for the period are 20. Karol is first, followed by BenchMark Finance, Elana Trading and Ug Market.
Source: Monitor (02.12.2008)

Only one of the 40 companies, included in the calculation of the broader BG40 index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), posted an increase in stock price in November, Profit.bg data show. Petrol's stock appreciated by over 50% last month. Infrastructure companies Holding Roads and Moststroy were BG40's biggest losers last month after their stock depreciated by 57 and 43%, respectively. Neochim's stock has also lost over 40% of its value over the past month. The stock of five other companies - Industrial Holding Bulgaria, Lead & Zinc Complex, Bulgarian American Credit Bank, Fazerles and Industrial Capital Holding each appreciated by more than 30% last month, while Billboard and Sparky Eltos shed 29% each.
Source: profit.bg (02.12.2008)

Pessimists for the movement of the leading index, the blue-chip Sofix, increased over three times to 25%, Pari daily's regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment inquiry among professional investors shows. A week earlier, they were not more than 7%. Of those asked 41% express just the opposite opinion against 70% a week ago. One third of the brokers expect consolidation around its present value.
Source: Pari (15.12.2008)

Bulgarian stock exchange (BSE) will reduce taxes for the services it offers, the board of directors decided. The aim is to stimulate effective trade. Taxes for sales and purchases between January 1-March 31 2009 will drop from 0.083% to 0.08% without VAT for deals under BGN 25 million no matter if they are of individuals, institutional investors or intermediaries. The tax rate for deals over the mentioned sum remains unchanged.
Source: Pari (17.12.2008)

The leading blue-chip Sofix will stay flat during the first 30 days of the new 2009 year, 53% of professional investors, taking part in Pari daily’s regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment inquiry, think. Optimists about the Sofix movement dropped to 31%. According to them, the decision for a zero interest in the USA will stimulate the credit market. A little over one fifth of those asked consider that the leading benchmark will continue its downfall. In their opinion, January is a weak month for all capital markets and the weak fourth quarter will have a negative influence.
Source: Pari (22.12.2008)

The leading blue-chip Sofix will stay flat during the first 30 days of the new 2009 year, 53% of professional investors, taking part in Pari daily’s regular Bullish Bearish Sentiment inquiry, think. Optimists about the Sofix movement dropped to 31%. According to them, the decision for a zero interest in the USA will stimulate the credit market. A little over one fifth of those asked consider that the leading benchmark will continue its downfall. In their opinion, January is a weak month for all capital markets and the weak fourth quarter will have a negative influence.
Source: Pari (29.12.2008)