Swiss buy Agricola Bulgaria Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) authorized the purchase of Pleven-based Agricola Bulgaria by the Swiss company EuroChem Trading. The investigation which the Commission launched in late 2016, showed that the transaction will not distort competition in the market for fertilizers in the country. EuroChem Trading is a department of the Swiss giant EuroChem, which portfolio includes the production and sale of fertilizers. For this reason the CPC made a thorough study on how the purchase of Agricola Bulgaria will affect the market. The main activity of the Pleven company is production and marketing of fertilizers and pesticides. Sole shareholder is the Belgian Agrium Europe, which is one of the largest distributors of fertilizers worldwide. CPC checked in with the main players in our market, including Agropolychim, Neochim and Agrochemical on the deal. Estimates, however, disagree. Neochim believes that the transaction will not have negative impact on the market and lead to restricting access to resources or products. According to Agropolychim, however, companies would be able to restrict access to the market - most easily by raising prices.
Source: Standart (14.02.2017)

Honeywell Bulgaria EOOD, the Bulgarian subsidiary of German industrial company Honeywell, has found a way to cope with the shortage of qualified engineers. It invests in training staff not only as students of technical universities, but also after graduation. According to Krassimir Stanchev, account manager for Bulgaria, the number of employees who work in the company is 162, most of them highly qualified engineers. Tihomir Toshkov, director for the Caspian region, said that the company has developed and implemented successful and effective solutions for companies such as Maritsa Iztok 2, Lukoil Bulgaria, TPP Bobov Dol, Neochim, Agropolychim, Deven, Solvay Sodi, Bulgartransgas, Overgas Networks, Lukoil Bulgaria, etc. He added that the total export turnover of the regional center for system solutions for 2016 amounted to USD 71 million.
Source: Other (03.04.2017)

Austrian polyolefins and fertilizers producer Borealis has acquired full control of Sofia-based Feboran by purchasing the remaining 60% stake in the company held by First Energy Bank of Bahrain. "With this transaction Borealis will further strengthen its footprint in the fertilizer business in the South-East European region," the company said in a statement. Further details about the deal were not disclosed. In December, 2014 Feboran acquired 20.3% stake in the Sofia-listed fertilizer company Neochim. Vienna-headquartered Borealis is a provider of solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. The company currently has around 6,600 employees and operates in over 120 countries.
Source: Capital (03.05.2017)

The state gas trader, Bulgargaz, has reported poorer financial performance: it registered a loss of 14.5 million leva at a profit of 35.4 million leva in the like period of last year, the website capital.bg writes. Nearly half of this loss (6.7 million leva) is due to the fact that the company would sold natural gas below the production cost, at which it had purchased it. This means that the company lost 34 leva per 1,000 cu.m. from its main activity in the second quarter of the year. This is due to the price of the natural gas that is determined by the energy regulator. According to company's data, the average weighted value for the first quarter of the year was 292.2 leva/1,000 cu.m. This price is 16 per cent lower compared to the average weighted one for the first quarter of last year. Losses have also been incurred by the revalorization of the payments to Gazprom. The company's losses from this activity amount to 12.8 million leva at 5.7 million leva for the same period of last year.
Source: Capital (14.08.2017)

Bulgaria's Expat Asset Management to launch six ETF tracking CEE blue-chip indexes Bulgarian investment and asset management company Expat Asset Management said on Wednesday it has sought approval from Bulgaria’s financial regulator to launch six exchange-traded funds (ETF). Each of funds will track the performance of one of the blue-chip indexes of the Hungarian, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian stock exchanges, Expat Asset Management said in a statement. At the end of March, Expat Asset Management filed for approval from the Financial Supervision Commission to launch four other ETFs, each of which will track the performance of one of the blue-chip indexes of the Greek, Romanian, Czech and Polish bourses. All ten ETFs will be listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and, subsequently, on foreign stock exchanges, the statement reads. In August 2016, Expat Asset Management launched the first ETF on the Bulgarian bourse. Expat Bulgaria SOFIX UCITS ETF [BUL:BGX] tracks the performance of the blue-chip SOFIX index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), by adhering to the method of full physical replication of the index. As at 1630 CET on Wednesday, Expat Bulgaria shares traded 0.56% lower at 1.245 levs ($0.75/0.64 euro).
Source: Dnevnik (05.10.2017)

Alcomet and Chimimport ranked among the top three in the growth of market capitalization in Southeastern Europe Two Bulgarian public companies fall among the three companies with the highest growth in market capitalization across Southeast Europe. These are Chimimport AD and Alcomet AD, whose market ratings doubled within 12 months, shows the annual TOP 100 ranking of the largest stockbrokers of SenseNews. Chimimport registered a growth of 93.6%, firing it from last year's 85th place to the top 50s - to 48th place. Alcomet AD, for its part, was ranked 67th for the first time thanks to its 117.07% growth. Third in growth is Slovenian ѳnkàrnà Ñåljå with 113.19%. With a market capitalization of EUR 204.6 million, Chimimport almost catches the Bulgarian leader Sopharma AD, whose market valuation amounts to EUR 205.4 million. One reason for the equalization is that the pharmaceutical company loses more than 10% over the past year. Among the 50 largest stock-traded companies in Southeastern Europe is Tchaikapharma High Quality Drugs AD, which has a 45.94% growth and a total capitalization of EUR 201.7 million.
Source: money.bg (10.10.2017)

The Swiss company with Russian capital bought Agricola Bulgaria Several months after buying the Bulgarian producer and distributor of agricultural fertilizers Agricola Bulgaria, the Swiss EuroChem Group renamed the subsidiary company to Eurochim Agro Bulgaria and presented the first results of its activity. The Pleven-based company, owned by the Canadian Agrium, was an importer of its products for Bulgaria, became part of the Swiss group on March 1, 2017. From the quarterly financial statements of the new owner, behind which Russian capital stands, it is clear that the price paid for 100% of the company is USD 320,000. Joining EuroChem has helped Pleven to double its market share to around 20%. Over the next two years, Eurochim Agro Bulgaria will invest in the construction of two new warehouses in order to improve its logistics and overall activity in the country. The Bulgarian company has already built a warehouse in Dobrich, which has been implemented with an investment of BGN 1.2 million. Its intentions are to build two more similar warehouses - one in Lom, which will serve Northwest Bulgaria and later one in Burgas , which will serve southern Bulgaria. The Swiss group owns two of the largest mines for phosphate mining, which is a raw material for the production of phosphorous fertilizers.
Source: Capital (23.11.2017)