Bulgaria's Trace Group Hold, partners win rail upgrade deal in Macedonia Macedonia's finance ministry has awarded a consortium made up of Bulgarian companies Trace Group Hold, Vodstroy 98, and Ponsstroyengineering and Macedonia's Fabrika Karpos a EUR 22.8 contract for the reconstruction of the Bitola-Kremenica railway line. The 18-month contract, signed in December, would involve the reconstruction of a 17 km single-track non-electrified line, part of pan-European transport Corridor X. Corridor X passes through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.
Source: profit.bg (30.01.2015)

Bulgarian Development Bank to refinance companies with bad loans The Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) will refinance companies with bad loans. For the purpose the bank’s statutes was amended. The explanation is that the BDB will support businesses which stand a chance of being straightened and maintaining jobs and production potential. The risk exists that the option could be used to “save” businessmen close to the BDB management and the government and support particular banks by buying their bad loan portfolios. The operations will be carried out with taxpayer money without any information on why and how the companies have been chosen.
Source: Capital (19.02.2015)

Bulgaria's Blagoevgrad-BT and Sofia-BT, units of cigarette maker Bulgartabac Holding, are seeking approval to take control of Sofia-based Baranco. The latter is the biggest shareholder with 49% stake in another company under the name of Yuri Gagarin. In the end of January 2015 Blagoevgrad-BT’s Board of Directors decides to move production of filters for cigarettes in Plovdiv. The holding did not formally announce the exact company in Plovdiv will assist that production process. That’s way it is highly probable that Yuri Gagarin is the company in question. Thus the Plovdiv-based company is ready to return officially to Bulgartabac Holding’s structure. The deal is not expected to affect any markets in the country because the concerned companies lack any vertical or horizontal relations. Baranco does not perform any trade operations. Blagoevgrad-BT and Sofia-BT produce and trade tobacco goods.
Source: Capital (16.03.2015)

The name of the state company LB Bulgaricum is usually associated with lactobacillus bulgaricus. In the last year and a half, however, the holder of the right to sell abroad the brand yogurt "Bulgaria" is infected by another bacillus. Bacillus that has long tormented politics and economy. Since late 2013, several companies are trying to take over the distribution of products of LB Bulgaricum abroad, which would not be bad, if it didn’t appear to be an attempt to curb the trademark of state company. It turns out that Dimitar Petkov, executive director of the state company during the period from November 2013 to September 2014, began to enter into transactions with related companies to which he has provide exclusive rights to sell and manufacture the company's products in Asian markets. With this action LB Bulgaricum probably enter into a breach of contract with its main contractor - the Japanese Meiji Co., which for years holds these rights. This could pass for simple incompetence if behind the Asia-registered companies did not stand very specific Bulgarian interests. Ownership can be traced to Ventsislav Cholakov, CEO of Bulgartabac Holding and Ventsislav Donkov, owner of Lodis Invest. The latter merged several dairy companies and is associated with Delyan Peevski, although not through formal relations. Donkov refused any comment. At the end of 2013, LB Bulgaricum signed distribution agreements with European Traders PTE and EMEA Trading Solutions FZE. The first is registered in Singapore, the second in Dubai. The idea of expanding the geographical presence of Bulgarian yoghurt to the Middle and Far East is laudable, but ... there's a catch. As stated in the legal analysis commissioned by LB Bulgaricum, the contracts with the companies, stored at LB, lacked the applications that govern the most significant contractual obligations between the parties. Moreover, the English version are entitled as contracts for exclusive rights, but at one point that is missing in the Bulgarian text, stating that they are granted rights to manufacture the products of LB. These clauses held risk whether the state company would enter into conflict with its main contractor Meiji Co., which for years has exclusive rights in Asia. Therefore, at the beginning of the year there were tensions whether the contract with the Japanese company will be renewed. In response to a inquiry, the company said that "cooperation with Meiji deepen in other regions of Asia, we hope to developed successful example of entering new markets." These legal loopholes could pass for normal problems of a director who has no special expertise in the field - Dimitar Petkov became CEO in late 2013 and did not seem to be connected prior to the dairy business. It turns out that Dubai-based EMEA Trading Solutions FZE owns 76% of the Vienna-registered Tobe Trade International GmbH. Before this, majority was owned by Petkov, but before becoming CEO of LB Bulgaricum, he left. The other shareholder in the Austrian company is Ventsislav Cholakov. Only incidentally, Bulgartabac has an office in Dubai. The ultimate parent of the tobacco company is also registered in the Arab country. Managing Director today is still Ventsislav Donkov and sole owner of the Viennese company is currently the Bulgarian company Doreko Commerce, makes clear reference in the Austrian commercial register. It is owned by the registered in the British Virgin Islands company with the same name. Through Doreko, Bulgartbak accomplished its key operations such as control of the plant Yuri Gagarin. Subsidiary company Doreko Security, for example, is run by former deputy Prosecutor Boyko Naydenov, who today is responsible for security of the holding. Another subsidiary of Doreko is Soda Communications - advertising agency of Bulgartabac. In fact, Petkov announced relations with Tobe Trade International GmbH in his declaration for conflict of interest. But it seems nobody has noticed.
Source: Capital (07.04.2015)

National Revenue Agency imposed a lien on the shares of Integrated Road Systems in the manufacturer of cigarette filters and packaging Yuri Gagarin because of doubt that it will not pay a public charge of BGN 13 million. The package represents about 1% of the public company’s capital and is assessed by the tax watchdog to nearly BGN 0.5 million. Besides, the construction company controls a securities package worth BGN 12.6 million in the company for diesel engines Vamo, which no longer operates. Preliminary lien has also been imposed on the majority owner of Integrated Road Systems - Eurobuild Project. The companies were in the scope of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) and its majority owner Tsvetan Vasilev and are the latest to see NRA’s active actions on the grounds that there is a risk not to make payments due to budget. Unlike other similar liens, this time NRA refers to a revision and open particular damage to the budget in the case of Integrated Road Systems.
Source: Capital (11.05.2015)

The company Alpha Media Group Ltd., in whose assets are the properties of the family of Delyan Peevski located in Bulgaria and Greece, has changed its offshore owner from Bahamas with new one from the Seychelles, according to the site Bivol. Alpha Media Group e owner of E.K.P.I., which was founded in 2006 under the name Eco Road JSC. In early 2007 ownership is transferred to Diema Group JSC, after which the company was renamed. According to an investigation of the site Noresharski, by the end of 2013 Alpha Media Group is owned by the British company Nate Holdings Limited (Nata Holdings Limited), which in turn is owned by a Bahamian offshore Nate Limited. On May 20, 2014, however, Nate Limited sold all its shares in Tate Holdings Limited to Jenkopt Limited, which is registered in Hong Kong. Its owner in turn is the Seychelles-based company Tyltrad Limited.
Source: mediapool.bg (18.05.2015)

New King’s hand King’s has already had exclusive distributor for the entire country, who takes the place of the present number of regional dealers. It’s the related to the MP Delyan Peevski Express logistics and distribution (ELD). Until now KT International cigarettes were sold by multiple distributors different for separate cities in the country as the good was provided to their warehouses while they distributed it to the end sites. The discount, which remained at the wholesalers, has also been stable for years - 3%. Balkan advertising and distribution was also defined as sole partner of the producer in the capital city. As from the first April Express logistics and distribution has been chosen for a sole distributor. ELD has taken up the delivery in all larger villages while for the less attractive rural regions cigarettes are driven to local stock exchanges. "Bulgartabac" has itself pointed out ELD as an exclusive distributor of cigarettes in Bulgaria at the beginning of March last year. Till then Tabac logistics group has played this role. It’s a union of long lasting cigarette traders from all regions of the country.
Source: Capital (15.06.2015)

Bulgaria’s Presa Daily, Tema Weekly to Cease Publishing Aug 1 Bulgaria’s Presa daily and Tema weekly will publish their last editions this week. Presa editor-in-chief Tosho Toshev has informed the staff that the last print edition of Presa will be out on Friday and Tema’s last issue will be published on Saturday, is said, citing journalists from the two editions. Presa and Tema have been published by United Free Media AD company. Toshev and Tema editor-in-chief Valery Zapryanov transferred their shares in the publisher to Integrated Road Systems, a construction company, two weeks ago. Toshev told Presa and Tema staff that with revenues just a third of costs the two editions were financially unsustainable. Presa started publishing in 2012.
Source: Dnevnik (31.07.2015)

Bulgaria revenue agency launches check of print media Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA) said on August 3 that it has started checking the finances of all print media, going back five years, for compliance with tax and social security laws. The agency said that its checks were prompted by a report drafted in June, which said that there was a “risk for evasion in the sector of print media publishing”, the NRA said in a statement. The agency said that “a significant number of publishers” have not been audited by the NRA “for years” and had overdue payments owed to the state. A similar report was being drafted concerning electronic media, which in Bulgaria can mean both broadcast and online media, and it was “not excluded that similar reviews will be carried out with regard to companies managing online publications,” the statement said. The statement comes only a day after daily newspaper Sega claimed that its accounts were being audited by the NRA and claimed that it was a consequence of the newspaper’s critical position regarding a number of government decisions, citing an indirect reference made by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov recently. The newspaper said that a gas company owned by Sega’s publisher had been the target of similar checks in 2008, when it took a critical stance towards the socialist-led tripartite government coalition of the time. NRA said in its statement on August 3 that the checks were not in any way related to the editorial policy of the publications audited, but a “routine practice by NRA to appraise the risk of avoidance”.
Source: Capital (04.08.2015)

The ex-mall capital Two out of five. These are actually working towards the first half of 2015 malls in Varna. The first of them – Pfohe Mall, was the first which ended its existence in its initial form. The mall was rebranded in an outlet center, while part of it was transferred to the municipality with the idea administration of Mladost region to be moved there. The latter was not realized, after all. Varna Towers was the first mall in the country, which was announced bankrupt. At present just one part of the commercial center with total area of nearly 52 thousand square meters is working-the office one. In that way at the moment in Varna, two malls are working- Orchid Developments Group’s Grand Mall and constructed by Interservice Uzunovi Mall Varna. The latter also moved through change of ownership and finally was acquired by Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria, which funded its construction.
Source: Capital (14.08.2015)

Mines Maritsa Iztok will ask for a loan of BGN 50 million from Bulgarian Development bank Mines Maritsa Iztok is looking for a chance for a fast loan to the amount of BGN 50 million with direct negotiations. We have been analyzing banks, and it turned out that the only one that may give us money now at the fastest way is Bulgarian Development bank. The money will be purposely directed solely to paying off our obligations to the state and the companies we are working with, Mines Maritsa Iztok’s CEO engineer Andon Andonov said at a press conference on Monday. The state company looks for a bridge funding for BGN 20 million in parallel, with which salaries of employees will be paid. If Bulgarian Development bank renders loan to the mines, it’s will be the second case of huge funding by a state bank, which is otherwise was set up to lend to small and medium-sized private companies. The state company is the second largest corporate employer in the country with its 7130 employees and the largest in the region of Stara Zagora. Money is needed so that three mines are prepared for the autumn-winter season. The company has signed a tripartite agreement with NEC and Brickell, as the settlement between them becomes as follows: NEC settles 90% to Mines Maritsa Iztok and 10% to Brickell.
Source: Capital (18.08.2015)

Who waits for the Central Railway Station? The first repair of the building for 40 years now has been started in April 2014. The order for reconstruction was won in the end of the summer of 2013 by a union between GBS, Vodstroj 98 and Industrial Construction Holding. It is assessed at BGN 56 million. The plan is project to be completed by the end of the year, or at the beginning of the coming 2016 at the latest. Total retail space in the renovated facility is 11 thousand square meters. Several months ago LS travel retail Bulgaria, a subsidiary of the French retailer Lagardere Services (LS), which is focused on management of retail space in airports, metro stations, railway and bus stations and malls made an offer to the company that operates Central Railway station-National company for railway infrastructure. The building is divided into three sections in both its repair and letting - central, northern and southern. The proposal of the French operator is to take up the management of the main part of the space with the scheme which was utilized in central bus station nearby. LS has a 10-year contract for management of the central bus station, which practically means that it holds 1,500 square meters of retail space there. While the repairs are not completed, the state company cannot take any steps towards renting of retail space, grouping of objects can certainly not be allowed, as well as the possibility of subletting.
Source: Capital (09.10.2015)

Bulgartabac has officially become owner of distributor of cigarettes and newspapers Bulgartabac has formally become owner of part of capital of distributor of cigarettes and newspapers named Express Logistic and Distribution (ELD). In the end of September tobacco holding acquired 45% of shares of the company via its subsidiaries Blagoevgrad-BT and Sofia-BT. ELD started operation in March last year. The company holds significant share of distribution of newspapers and cigarettes. In March 2014 it became official distributor of Bulgartabac and took the place in the business of the long standing distributor Tabac logistic group. Blagoevgrad-BT has 30% of ELD’s shares, while Sofia-BT acquired 15% of its capital. Seller of both packages of shares, which price is not disclosed is registered on the British Virgin island company under the name of Lanezal Limited.
Source: Dnevnik (04.11.2015)