불가리아 주요 경제뉴스 (2 - 9 March 2012)

BULGARIAN ECONOMIC TOP NEWS DIGEST

WEEKLY REPORT (2 - 9 March 2012)

 

Sections/headline briefs:

 

MACROECONOMY:

v  EU Funds Will Provide Lv 17,100 Mln to Bulgaria in 2014-2020 Programming Period

v  Retail sales in Bulgaria drop 2.6% y/y in Jan 2012 – Eurostat

v  Bulgarian economy grows by 1.7% in 2011

v  Bulgaria’s industrial production sees 3.6% drop Jan 2012 y/y

v  Bulgaria’s construction output rebounds 1.2% y/y in Jan 2011

 

INVESTMENTS:

v  Bulgaria to Unveil 2 Photovoltaic Parks Built by South Korean Investors

 

COMPANIES AND INDUSTRIES:

v  Rompetrol to open 10 fuel stations in Bulgaria by end-April 2012

v  Sales of Bulgaria’s drugmaker Sopharma rebound 20% y/y in Feb 2012

v  Bulgarian Government Sells 33% of E.ON for 90 M Levs

v  Turkcell submits binding offer for 94% of telecom BTC

v  Premier Power starts construction of 16.2 MWp solar power plant in Bulgaria

v  Bulgaria launches 60.4M leva tender for Windows software

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Articles:

 

MACROECONOMY:

 

EU Funds Will Provide Lv 17,100 Mln to Bulgaria in 2014-2020 Programming Period

According to the latest estimates, Bulgaria will have at its disposal 17,100 million leva excluding national co-financing and 20,000 million leva including national financing during the next programming period 2014-2020, EU Funds Management Minister Tomislav Donchev said here on Thursday. Some 30 per cent of the money will be for investments in basic infrastructure, 18 per cent will come from the European Social Fund, and 52 per cent from the European Regional Development Fund. There will be five or six operational programmes, and the operational units will be reduced. Donchev said municipalities have prepared 3,215 projects under the operational programmes so far and have implemented some 1,400 contracts. "This makes an average 12 projects per municality, which means that nearly one in two projects has been successful," the Minister said. More than 837 million leva have been disbursed. Two new schemes under Operational Programme Regional Development are to be opened this year: a 180 million leva scheme for Green and Accessible Urban Environment for 36 municipalities, which will be published in September, and a 15 million leva scheme in support of the next programming period for 36 municipalities, which will be opened in late March, said Regional Development and Public Woks Minister Lilyana Pavlova. Her Ministry will use 24 million leva for flooding-prevention measures in 178 small municipalities and in the urban agglomerations. Part of the 2,200 million leva-plus conrtacted under Operational Programme Environment so far, representing 64 per cent of the programme budget, have already been disbursed, Environment and Water Minister Nona Karadjova said. The share of contracted resources is 70 per cent in the Water Sector and some 50 per cent in the Waste Sector. The ministers spoke at a General Meeting of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB), which elected Pazardjik Mayor Todor Popov President of NAMRB and members of the Association's Board of Directors and Control Council.

 

Retail sales in Bulgaria drop 2.6% y/y in Jan 2012 – Eurostat

The volume of retail sales fell by 2.6% y/y in January and the contraction steepened slightly from revised 2.5% y/y a month earlier, Eurostat data showed. Retail sales have been declining for eight months in a roll but the decrease is still lower than over 5% y/y recorded in October and November 2011. The indicator has been falling in annual terms in each month since February 2009 until March 2011 when it turned to growth. The positive trend sustained for three consecutive months. In monthly seasonally-adjusted terms, the index went down by 0.3% in January following one-off increase of 0.9% m/m in December. In all the 27 EU member states, retail sales’ growth sped to 0.7% y/y speeding from 0.4% y/y in December on non-food products after declining in the previous months. The national statistical institute will publish detailed data tomorrow (March 7). 

 

Bulgarian economy grows by 1.7% in 2011

Bulgaria's gross domestic product grew by 1.7 per cent in 2011, data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) showed on March 6. An earlier flash estimate from the NSI put the figure at 1.6 per cent. The numbers fell well short of the Government's growth target of 3.6 per cent, but also the recent estimates from the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, which had projected economic growth of 1.9 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively. In absolute terms, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011 was 75.27 billion leva in current prices. Per capita GDP was 10 109 leva. Fourth-quarter GDP was up 1.6 per cent on an annual basis and 0.3 per cent higher than in the previous quarter. Despite a trade gap in the last quarter of 1.38 billion leva, the full-year figure showed a trade surplus of 509 million leva. NSI also revised the final figures for 2010 GDP, which put economic growth up to 0.4 per cent (versus the earlier figure of 0.2 per cent growth).

 

Bulgaria's Industrial Production Sees 3.6% Drop Jan 2012 Y/Y

Bulgaria's working day-adjusted industrial production index decreased by 3.6% in January 2012 year on year, the country's National Statistical Institute has informed. According to the Institute's seasonally adjusted preliminary data, Bulgaria's industrial production decreased by 0.6% in January as compared to December 2011. Annual decreases were registered in the production of investment goods by 7.6%, in the production of energy by 4.2% and in the production of intermediate goodsby 2.4%. Significant monthly increases of production in manufacturing were seen in the manufacture of paper and paper products (by 20.2%), in the manufacture of basic metals (by 14.4%), in the manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (by 13.1%), in the manufacture of rubber and plastic products by (12.1%).

 

Bulgaria’s construction output rebounds 1.2% y/y in Jan 2011

Bulgaria’s construction output increased by 1.2% y/y in January, preliminary data of the statistics office shows. The indicator left the negative territory for the first time since November 2010 on better results of civil engineering works, which rose by 9.8% y/y during the month. At the same time, the volume of buildings construction dropped by 4.7% y/y in January as compared to a revised 4.6% y/y decline in December. In seasonally adjusted terms, total construction output was lower by 1.8% m/m while according to working-days-adjusted data, the indicator rose by 0.2% y/y. 

 

 

INVESTMENTS:

Bulgaria to Unveil 2 Photovoltaic Parks Built by South Korean Investors

South Korea's Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho will attend Thursday the inauguration ceremony of two photovoltaic parks, "Samovodene" and "Zlataritsa", located near the city of Veliko Tarnovo in central northern Bulgaria. The projects were implemented by the SDN Company and KOSEP, which is part ofSouth Korea's national power company. The installations absorbed an investment of EUR 154 M, which makes it the biggest Korean investment in the Bulgaria. The ceremony will also be attended by Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Dimitar Chohadzhiev, the executive director of the Sustainable EnergyDevelopment Agency Kolyo Kolev, the District Governor of Veliko Tarnovo, Pencho Penchev and other official guests from South Korea.

 

 

 

COMPANIES AND INDUSTRIES:

 

Rompetrol to open 10 fuel stations in Bulgaria by end-April 2012

The local subsidiary of Romania’s Rompetrol intends to open 10 fuel stations by the end of April thus raising the total number of its units in the country to 70, Dnevnik Daily informs. The company reports interest from small fuel stations, which are not part of the big fuel retailers in the country, to join its chain under franchising agreements. This implies further expansion of Rompetrol by the end of the year. The fuel trader targets to grab 7-8% of the local market in the next years. 

 

Sales of Bulgaria’s drugmaker Sopharma rebound 20% y/y in Feb 2012

The sales revenue of leading local pharmaceutical producer Sopharma increased by 20% y/y in February, including 33% y/y exports growth and 10% y/y contraction of the domestic market sales, the company said in a note, posted on the website of the local stock exchange. Since the beginning of the year, total sales of the company have risen by 3% as export has increased by 13% y/y while the domestic market has contracted by 23% y/y. We remind that Sopharma's sales decreased by 17% y/y in January on bad weather conditions. The non-consolidated total revenues of Sopharma increased by 2.8% to BGN 245.1mn (EUR 125.3mn) in 2011, including sales growth of 1.5% y/y to more than 94% of total revenues. Domestic sales (up by 3.4% y/y) accounted for 31.2% of all sales as compared to 30.2% in 2010. Exports sales declined by 0.9% y/y. The net non-consolidated profit of the company added 0.3% y/y to BGN 40.7mn (EUR 20.8mn) last year. 

 

Bulgarian Government Sells 33% of E.ON for 90 M Levs

Bulgaria's government is planning to list its 33-percent share in the energy utility E.ON, supplying electricity to the households and businesses in northeastern Bulgaria, at the Sofia Stock Exchange for about ninety million levs, well informed sources told the Standart. The listing is expected to take place this spring, after the general meeting of E.ON's shareholders.

 

Turkcell submits binding offer for 94% of telecom BTC

Turkey's leading cell-phone operator Turkcell has submitted binding offer to acquire 94% of the country's largest telecom operator BTC, traded as Vivacom, Capital Daily informs. Turkcell turns out to be the only strategic investor interested in BTC. Three financial investors have also placed their bids, according to unconfirmed information of the daily. These are Russia's VTB Bank in partnership with local businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, CEO of country's seventh largest in terms of assets lender, Corporate Commercial Bank, a company related to Iceland's billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson, who sold majority stake in BTC to AIG Capital Partners in 2007, and a company from the Pamplona Group. The offer of the Russians reportedly amounts to EUR 800-900mn. Last year, the creditors of BTC asked Morgan Stanley to raise bids for BTC by end-March 2012. BTC is owned by Cayman Island-based Bridge Partners after the company's previous owner, insurer AIG, agreed to sell parts of its asset management and investment advisory business to Bridge Partners in December 2009. 

 

Premier Power starts construction of 16.2 MWp solar power plant in Bulgaria

Premier Power Renewable Energy, US-based company active in the construction of photovoltaic power plants, announced that it will start field works on a solar power plant near the village of Zdravets in northeast Bulgaria, DarikFinance reported. The capacity of the power producer will stand at 16.2 MWp. Construction works are to be completed in Q2 this year. Premier Power runs more than 1,000 projects for photovoltaic parks in Europe and the US. 

 

 

Bulgaria launches 60.4M leva tender for Windows software

Bulgaria's Government has called a public tender to buy an unspecified amount of licences for Microsoft Windows operating system (OS), allocating 60.4 million leva for the purpose. Additional services include IT support, with the winner of the tender required to provide at least 3600 hours of Microsoft Premier Support Services and 3000 hours of Microsoft Enterprise Strategy IT Architecture and Planning services until the end of 2014. The tender notice was published on February 27 on the state administration's public tender portal. The deadline for submitting offers is April 6, with bids to be opened on April 9. According to Bulgarian news website mediapool.bg, which quoted unnamed sources familiar with the tender, the tender is for 100 000 licences of the latest version of Microsoft Windows. The current licences owned by the state administration cover all versions of the OS up to Windows 7 - Bulgaria last bought about 60 000 licences in 2007. The next version of the operating system, Windows 8, is still in development (with the latest beta version released on February 29) and no release date has been announced, although it is expected to be out by the end of the year. Current computer hardware used in the state administration is too obsolete for Windows 7, which can run on only about 30 per cent of the computers in state institutions, mediapool.bg said. The tender requirements stipulate that bidders must have a number of Microsoft certificates and must have carried out similar contracts worth a total two million leva over the past three years (available in Bulgarian here). Microsoft Windows licence tenders organised by the Bulgarian Government have traditionally been won by CAD R&D Center Progress, a private company that is an authorised distributor for Dell and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

 

 

 

 

Reported by:

Georgi Iliev

KOTRA Sofia

Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency

Commercial Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea