Date Target Vendor Investor Size Comment
October 18 A 80% stake in metal trading company acquired Jupiter Stomana (Bulgaria) ThyssenKrupp Services AG N/A Jupiter Stomana generated EUR 11.1 mln sales in 2004.
October 17 Construction of SPA resort Razlog Municipality EIBank and Katarino SPA EUR 12 mln EIBank co-funding ammounts to EUR 8.5 mln.
October 17 Construction of oil terminal and oil refining projects Varna Municipality Bulgarian lubricants producer Prista Oil EUR 4.5 mln The company has invested more than EUR 25.5 mln in the production of lubricants since it was set up in 1993.
October 17 Construction of new logistic center The village of Krivina, near Sofia German polymer system supplier Rehau EUR 2.5 mln Rehau plans to raise its sales in Bulgaria to EUR 13.8 mln.
October 14 Flood recovery program Bulgaria EU (PHARE pre-accession aid programme) EUR 12.3 mln The state budget will co-finance the project with EUR 3 mln.
October 12 Wastewater treatment plant in Blagoevgrad Greek construction companies Themeliodomi and Avax Bulgarian state EUR 13 mln 70% of the financing for the project comes from EU's accession programme ISPA.
October 12 Syndicated loan to fund corporate banking projects Bulgaria's Municipal Bank Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB)is lead arranger of the loan EUR 10 mln Municipal Bank ranked the 15th largest bank by assets in the country; first-half net profit tripled year-on-year, reaching EUR 1.52 mln
Deals, contracts, tenders and outsourcing for a total value of more than BGN 2 mln. and projects of strategic interest to Bulgaria
With the contribution of SeeNews (published by AII Data Processing Ltd) and Rivas
GOVERNMENT AND EU | REAL ESTATE AND FINANCE | EU TOPICS
Date Subject Institution Comment
October 18 Taiwan's computer peripherals firm D-Link has opened a wholly owned subsidiary in Bulgaria D-Link Global and local competitors are: Cisco, 3Com and Linxis.
October 18 Shortlist of Danube Bridge II contractors gets nod from European Commission Transport Ministry The transport ministry initially shortlisted four companies: Spain's FCC Construction, a tie-in with the participation of Germany's Zublin, a JV between Bilfinger-Berger and Belgium's Besix, and Germany's Hochtief. The project's total worth is EUR 236 mln.
October 18 Bulgaria's unemployment rate fell to 10.49% in Sept Labor Ministry It is expected that state-funded employment programmes would help bring the average unemployment rate to 11.9% this year, from 12.67% in 2004 and 14.25% in 2003.
October 17 EIB ready to increase lending for long-term projects in Bulgaria The European Investment Bank (EIB) The EIB has lent some EUR 40 mln. The increase will be between 100 and 200% and will target key infrastructure developments.
October 14 Bulgarian Parliament passes EU-required penal code Parliament The new penal code is harmonised with a list of EU requirements dating from 2000, with a focus on speeding up the pre-trial phase and overcoming an easily corruptible two-tier investigation system.
October 13 Romania, Bulgaria offer strong investment opportunities for retailers PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) PwC puts Romania and Bulgaria along China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, and Russia as the countries offering the strongest investment opportunities for retail and consumer companies.
October 13 Transtelecom, Cablenet win 2 wireless network permits Telecom Regulator The 2 candidates bid up the 10-year permits to EUR 2.5 mln
News and events important for investors related to the Bulgarian legislation, government and EU policy, financial and real estate sectors.
With the contribution of SeeNews (published by AII Data Processing Ltd) and Rivas

C3i (USA) Launches European Operations Call Centre in Bulgaria

U.S. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and outsourcing services provider C3i opened a call centre in Sofia to provide multi-lingual help desk support and workstation management services for European clients. C3i provides support services for U.S. software maker Siebel Systems customer facing solutions. The company launched its first European Operations Center in Sofia to take live customer support calls from global top 20 pharmaceutical companies. Sofia Center is C3i's third call centre after those in the United States and India.

According to Joel Morse, CEO of C3i Bulgaria has enabled C3i to expand business into Europe offering multilingual help desk for global clients and providing “offshore” alternative to US based clients

The Bulgaria experience
Availability of all European & Japanese languages
- Analysts take to training very quickly
- Telco companies have been extremely responsive
- Costs in line with initial expectations
- Sophisticated local professionals to support establishment of HR/Finance Processes
- Government forms less burdensome than India
Showcase of important issues, deals, and events.
With the contribution of Rivas
October 19, 2005