Corporate Information - News

The Bulgarian-Austrian consortium "Wind Energy" presented on Thursday a project for the construction of a wind energy park near the northern Black Sea town of Shabla.

The news was announced by the Shabla City Hall press center. The project was presented before the Shabla mayor, his team and the local municipal councilmen.

The project to build 125 wind generators fully complies with European standards. The total investment amount is estimated at EUR 300 M. The investors are further prepared to build on their own expense an energy distribution center in order to include the wind park in the country's energy distribution system.

During the presentation, representatives of the joined stock company, including two Bulgarian and two Austrian companies, explained that the consortium would be registered with the local Court in Shabla, meaning their taxes would go into the municipality's budget.

The investors would offer other assistance to the municipality for the realization of different local projects and activities. They would also use only local businesses and employ local workers.

Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov appeared in the role of himself in the soap opera "Forbidden Love".

In the series, aired at the private Nova TV channel, Borissov is the special guest at a charity ball but is late for the event.

In the next scene, one of the characters, Anastasiya, tells the mayor she will forgive him for the delay if he reveals before her whether he is going to run for the prime minister's post.

After that, Borissov gives an interview for the host of a political talk show Tsvetanka Rizova, commenting life and politics in Bulgaria.

Viewers praised the capital mayor's appearance on the screen saying it was short but memorable.

The revenues from vacation tourism could possibly increase by EUR 50 M in 2011, the Bulgarian State Tourist Agency reported.

The forecast is largely based on the expected results from the implementation of 6 projects under the European "Regional Development" program.

The projects' realization would increase room occupancy by 1,2% in 2011, with Bulgarians paying for an additional 24,000 accommodations and foreign visitors - an additional 70,000, which would generate the extra EUR 50 M in revenues.

It is expected that by 2011, 10,000 more Bulgarian tourists would chose to vacation in the country, instead of abroad.

The newly prepared advertisement campaign to promote Bulgaria as a tourist destination is going to target 310 million people while the funds would be provided by the "Regional Development" program.

France's Carrefour, Europe's biggest retailer, has not given up on the planned rapid expansion in Bulgaria despite the global economic slump, sources close to the company said. The chain has inked a contract to open a 10 000 sq m outlet in Rousse’s Grand Plaza shopping mall, which should be finished in 2010.

Carrefour has been preparing for Bulgarian entry for a several years now, planning to debut in 2009 and build a 30-strong network of supermarkets and hypermarkets over the folowing five years.
On November 18, Carrefour sacked CEO Jose-Luis Duran over tepid sales and said it will focus on expansion in emerging economies.

Carrefour sold a retail centre under construction on Sofia’s Tsarigradsko Chaussee to Greek fund Assos Capital to follow up with a Bourgas shopping mall unloaded to Gort Holdings and Bridgecorp. The chain will own Carrefour supermarkets in both complexes.

Year-on-year inflation in Bulgaria fell to single-digits after the consumer price index (CPI) in November shrunk by 0.1 per cent, preliminary data released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on December 12 2008 showed. After five months of steady decline, year-on-year inflation fell to 9.1 per cent at end-November, dropping sharply from 10.9 per cent a month earlier.

Deflation in November was caused by the 0.4 per cent drops in non-food and services prices. Food prices were 0.4 per cent higher for the month.

The harmonised consumer price index (CPI), the figure calculated by the statistics board for comparison with inflation in the European Union, recorded an even larger recoil, shrinking by 0.4 per cent in November, while the year-on-year inflation figure fell to 8.8 per cent. In October, the harmonised CPI grew by 0.1 per cent and was 11.2 per cent year-on-year.

The Cabinet had targeted a harmonised inflation figure of 4.5 per cent for the year, according to the macroeconomic framework used to draft the 2008 budget, and has not officially revised it.

Bulgarian National Bank's most recent forecast, issued in July, said that it expected year-on-year inflation, which peaked at a ten-year high of 15.3 per cent in June, to go down in the second half of the year and reach eight per cent by end-2008. Cumulative inflation through November was 7.6 per cent, according to NSI data.

Bulgaria’s cabinet voted Wednesday to increase the capital of the Bulgarian Development Bank by BGN 330 M as a measure to counter the effects of the global financial crisis on the real estate sector.
The government takes such a step for the second time in less than two month after it increased the capital of the Bulgarian Development Bank by BGN 100 M on November 4, 2008.

The Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) is a top priority financial instrument of the government as it is creating various schemes to support entrepreneurship especially with respect to the export potential and competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy.

Wednesday’s financial injection of the BDB will enable it to grant credits to commercial banks, which in turn would be able to provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises with more favorable conditions.

The BDB finances its activity by emitting bonds, through EU funds, and though credits from local, and international financial institutions. It was set up in April 2008 as a successor to the former “Encouraging Bank” in order to help for Bulgaria’s economic development.

The increases of the capital of the BDB are not limited by its statutes. The decision to increase its capital are made by the general assembly of its shareholders but the Bulgarian state always holds no fewer than 51% of its shares, which are non-transferable.

The minister of transport Petar Mutafchiev and the executive director of the airport Plamen Stanchev welcomed Yavor Poptoshev and the B-6 exit. Passenger №3 000 000 was in a “Bulgaria Air” flight from Heatrow, London. At his welcoming party, he said that he is a football player and that he is satisfied by the services of the airport and by the modern look of Terminal-2.

Minister Mutafchiev and Plamen Stanchev gave him a commemorating coin of the Sofia airport, a coupon for free use of the business salons of the airport for a year, gilded special coins from the Bulgarian national bank and a bottle of champagne with the words “Sofia airport - 2008’s passenger №3 000 000″ engraved.