Plans for the transformation of a commercial corporation will not have to be audited if all shareholders approve skipping the procedure.

The opt-out, not applicable to public corporations, will be legislated with changes to commercial code that the justice ministry has submitted for approval by other competent government bodies.

Shareholders must certify their consent expressly in writing.

The sponsors of the amendment argue it will save local businesses money they will otherwise have to spent on auditors and will cut the timeframe for mergers and demergers.

Under the current rules, the preparations for the transformation of a commercial partnership could take from eight up to ten months, said the justice ministry.(Dnevnik)

TM Auto, one of the Toyota dealers in Bulgaria, said it has started the construction of a second sales and service center in Sofia, naming no investment estimate.

The 12,000 sq m site of the new Toyota center is located on the Evropa boulevard in the direction of the Bozhurishte borough.

Toyota Sofia West will have a build area of 11,000 sq m, 400 parking spaces and the capacity to service simultaneously 20 vehicles. It should be operational by the second half of 2009.

The first Toyota center in Sofia is located on the Tsarigradsko Shose boulevard.

Away from the capital, Toyota dealerships operate in Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Pazardjik, Plovdiv, Pleven, Ruse, Sliven and Stara Zagora.

Toyota ranked as the nation's no.2 auto brand in January-July with 3,212 sold units. It trailed only Opel.

(Dnevnik)

The mayor of the town of Sevlievo has until September 1 to respond to a letter from the environment minister, asking that the city accept some of the baled garbage produced by the Bulgarian capital which has been temporarily stockpiled in Kremikovtzi and Gara Iskar.

Sevlievo mayor Yordan Stoikov said the 1 mln cu m waste depot of the town could be used to dispose of some of the 600,000 tons of baled garbage but not the whole lot.

He said the Sevlievo municipal council has approved a charge of 20 levs per ton without taxes for the disposal of Sofia garbage.

The baled garbage stockpiled at temporary sites in Kremikovtzi and Gara Iskar will have to be moved by September or else the authorities will be sanctioned by the EU for breach of waste disposal rules.

It is not clear what will happen with the garbage that Sevlievo will be unable to accept.

The list of municipalities with new waste depots that could accept some of Sofia's garbage includes Montana, Vratsa, Elin Pelin, Sandanski, Petrich, Gotse Delchev, Troyan, Haskovo, Dospat and Lovech.

The list of municipalities that have been asked for assistance is kept under wraps to prevent protests from the local population.

(Dnevnik)

Property developer Winslow Development on Tuesday said it will build two gated residential communities in Sofia, naming no investment estimate.

The company is already building one residential compound in Sofia, Winslow Gardens.

The developer has already secured the relevant design permit for one of the two new projects, located in the capital's Vitosha residential district, said Georgi Konstantinov who heads the projects at Winslow Development.

Talks are underway with the utility companies with the competition to select a building contractor due to kick off this fall. Construction of the 30,000 sq m property should get underway before the end of 2008.

The second of the new projects, in Sofia's Bankia district, will be implemented in two phases. It will have a footprint of 12,500 ha.

Winslow's lead-off development, Winslow Gardens, launched in early 2007. The first of the three phases should be completed by 2010, delivering 70,000 sq m in build area.

The market impact of the slew of gated compounds under construction in Sofia should start to become evident over the next couple of years as the projects reach completion.

Sofia Gardens is one of the first to be completed. Residential Park and Vitosha Tulip are at an advanced stage. Dozens of other residential communities are at various stage of construction or design.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgaria's Gorna Arda hydro power complex will likely be built under a concession arrangement that will be contested by all interested outfits on an equal footing with national power grid operator NEK, economy minister Petar Dimitrov said on Tuesday.

The project should return to the front-burner this fall when an agreement is expected to be reached with the estranged Turkish partner in the undertaking.

Last year, CCG Insaat Sanayi Yatirim Ve Turiz, the legal successor of Celyan, the original Turkish participant in the project, filed a 75 mln euro claim against NEK at the intentional court of arbitration in Paris.

In the 1990s, NEK and Ceylan co-created Hydro Energy Company Gorna Arda (HEK Gorna Arda) within the framework of the so called power-for-infrastructure intergovernmental agreement. NEK owns 69.9% of the joint venture.

In exchange for the electricity supplies, Turkish companies were supposed to participate in a number of joint ventures like HEK Gorna Arda for the implementation of energy and infrastructure projects.

The Gorna Arda project plays an important part in Bulgaria's energy strategy as it is fully based on the use of renewable resources, Dimitrov told Dnevnik.

The government official said there has been no talk of either Bulgaria or the Turkish partner cashing in their respective stake in the project. 'It is important for us to reach an agreement with the Turkish partner and then things will get into gear.”(Dnevnik)