The committee of bondholders owning 51% of notes secured with key assets of Bulgarian steel maker Kremikovtzi has filed an appeal against the decision by the Sofia City Court dated 6 August 2008 which declared the date of the company's insolvency as 31 December 2005, said the PR agency of the committee.

On July 21, 2008, the English High Court gave judgment for the full amount of the Bonds plus accrued interest and fees against Kremikovtzi in favor of the Bondholders, said the statement.

The ruling of the Bulgarian court adjudicated the steel maker insolvent and started a bankruptcy procedure.

However, the insolvency date set by the court precedes the placement of the bonds by five months.

Under Bulgarian legislation, the bondholders may end up having no cognizable claim over the furnished bond security which consisted of blast furnaces, a coke production line and a continuous casting line.

In their statement, the bondholders said they are concerned that the erroneous findings of the Sofia City Court, namely that Kremikovtzi’s insolvency preceded the issuance of the Bonds, appear to have been made with the express intent of depriving Bondholders of their contractual rights and claims, to the benefit of parties wishing to purchase the company’s assets at unfairly low values.

In the statement, bondholder Jeremy Blank of York Capital Management, speaking on behalf of the Bondholder committee, roundly denounced the Court’s decision, 'For the Court’s decision to be correct, it would mean that the government supported the issuance to international investors of a very substantial amount of debt by an insolvent company.

'If the Court’s decision holds, Bondholders will look to recover any losses suffered by them from parties involved in the Note issue,' Blank is quoted as saying in the statement.(Dnevnik)

Bulgarian company Kaolin, the biggest producer of industrial minerals in Southeast Europe, posted a 17% increase in H1 consolidated revenue, shows data filed with the Bulgarian stock exchange.

Sales rose 21% to 66.7 mln levs over the review period. The company has forecast a 2008 sales increase of at least 20%.

Earnings posted a real decline of 43% to 6.18 mln levs in the first half of 2008.

A year earlier, the company reported a net profit of 12.88 mln levs mainly due to the one-off event of recovering a security furnished for participation in a sell-off tender.

Kaolin said its Serbian subsidiaries Srbokvarc and Kopovi and Ukrainian subsidiary PKSP made the biggest contribution to H1 consolidated earnings.

H1 costs outpaced the rise in revenues, increasing 30% to 62 mln levs. The surge was mainly due to higher input costs and pricier external services.

(Dnevnik)

The local real estate investment funds targeting arable land have accumulated 71,000 ha, shows the latest data which also indicates that the biggest special purpose vehicles are boosting their market share.

The biggest REITs are the most active buyers while their minor competitors are more cautious and purchase smaller plots.

The three biggest REITs – Elana Agricultural Land Opportunity Fund, Advance Terrafund and Agrofinance, own 86% of the total land portfolio.

The Elana fund owns 28,200 ha, just ahead of Advance Terrafund with 24,300 ha and Agrofinance with 8,700 ha.

In July, the Elana fund consolidated its new farmland plots at an acquisition cost of 2,910 levs/ha versus 3,590 levs/ha for Agrofinance.

Advance Terrafund has agreed the best lease rates at 140 levs/ha. The company raked in 2.114 mln levs in land lease revenues in the agrarian 2007-2008 period.

The Elana fund has agreed 129 levs/ha and has forecast land lease income at 2,34 mln levs.

Arable land in the North Central and Northwestern regions make up the bulk of the funds' portfolio.

(Dnevnik)

The unit of Russia's AtomStroyExport hired to build a new nuclear capacity at the Danube town of Belene has signed a c contract with the Euromin Build consortium, the company said in response to a Dnevnik inquiry.

The value of the contract remains a commercial secret.

On Monday, the consortium and national power utility NEK denied participation in the project.

The consortium is co-owned by Eurobuild and Minstroy Holding.

The holding owns a 30% stake in the tie-in while Minstroy is majority-owned by Nikolai Valkanov.

Eurobuild is believed to be affiliated with Lyudmil Stoikov, a local businessman investigated for SAPARD fraud.

In a report issued by Olaf, the EU's anti-fraud office, Stoikov was named as donor to the campaign of Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov. The holding also contributed 25,000 levs to the election campaign of the DPS party.

Various sources linked Minstroy's inclusion in the project with DPS' support for the construction of the new nuclear plant and of adding two more units to the existing Kozloduy NPP.

The Euromin Build consortium was selected in pursuance to NEK criteria, said AtomStroyExport.

Under NEK's agreement with the Russian company, the utility has the last say on the list of subcontractior that will be hired for the project.

NEK has approved the hiring of a consortium comprising Energoremont Holding, Enemona, Montazhi, Balkanstroy and Minstroy Holding to dismantle equipment delivered to the Belene site before the project was mothballed in the early 1990s.

(Dnevnik)