The volume of bad loans for individuals and households almost touched corporate loans in end-July 2008 although individuals took some 11 bln levs less, central bank data showed.

Bad consumer, mortgage and other loans of individuals added up to 468.5 mln levs. Bad corporate loans totaled 493.6 mln levs. Companies drew 28.5 bln levs worth of loans. Households and individuals borrowed a combined 16.9 bln levs.

Banks’ retail loan portfolios grew as fast as bad and restructured loans. Bad consumer loans picked up 44.8 pct year-on-year as the whole consumer portfolio expanded by 47 pct year-on-year.

Bad housing mortgage loans grew 48.9 pct and the whole portfolio added 50 pct.

The close paces are due to the smaller growth rate of new loans, bankers commented.

Bad and restructured loans combined soared by 282 mln levs to 962.1 mln levs for a year making 2.11 pct of the total portfolio.

The combined profit of Bulgarian lenders surged 38.2 pct to 842 mln levs from January to July.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgaria’s farm ministry pressed at the demand of grain producers for 378 mln levs of state aid aside of the EU subsidies for 2009.

The finance ministry opposed the proposal saying milk producers will be backed by extra subsidies and the rural development programme, experts said.

In the spring former farm minister Nihat Kabil and grain producers signed a memorandum for the subsidies.

The grain producers threatened to take to the streets in protest unless the ministry keeps its promise, said the association’s chairman, Krasimir Avramov.

In 2007 farmers were denied state aid on the ground that the first year of EU membership would burden heavily the budget. The ministry dug its heels in on subsidies last year as well and slated 147 mln levs only after the drought caused farmers to stage mass protests. Yet the subsidies will be handed out no sooner than October when the budget surplus should be calculated.

(Dnevnik)

Brunata, the Bulgarian unit of Danish exporter of flexible solutions for individual billing of costs for heating and water, said it will spend 3.0 mln levs on the construction of a plant room assembly plant in the industrial zone of the southern town of Rakovski.

The firm is raising a 2,200 sq m building that will be outfitted with cutting-edge equipment and should start operations in the autumn. It will have an annual production capacity of 2,000 units and sell the bulk of it to EU heating utilities.

In the summer Brunata replaced 1,030 own plant rooms under a 4.4 mln euro contract it signed with the Sofia heating utility. The project was funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Brunata also produced and installed 505 plant rooms in Belgrade worth 1.93 mln euro.

(Dnevnik)

The panic on the global markets gripped hard the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and pulled the blue chip SOFIX index nearly 3.0 pct to 931.02 points.

The correction dampened all gains accumulated over the past 24 months.

The broader BG40 tumbled 2.96 pct ending the session at 227.3 points. The Dnevnik 20 index tracking the biggest and most liquid companies on the BSE suffered the sharpest decrease of 4.94 pct closing at 118.32 points.

Turnover was sluggish adding up to 2.9 mln levs at the end of trading. The market capitalisation sank to 19.2 bln levs.

“Liquidity is terribly small and the presence of institutional investors and funds is totally out of the question”, commented Kiril Garchev, broker at investment brokerage Bulbrokers.

The official market plunged deep in the red with just a handful of companies entering positive territory.

Stara Planina Hold and Synergon Holding lost over 8.0 pct. The blue chip drug maker Sopharma, fuel retailer Petrol and industrial conglomerate Chimimport closed more than 8.0 pct lower.

Banks also lost ground as Bulgarian American Credit Bank shed over 4.0 pct and First Investment Bank was down over 3.0 pct. Central Cooperative Bank lost more than 1.0 pct of its market capitalisation.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgarian property funds do not plan to raise fresh cash for investments and have no trouble selling their finished projects, the major market players said.

The bulk of the companies have already secured resources and agreed bank loans but owned up to slower sales and pickier housing and holiday property customers.

Offices on good locations and with developed infrastructure are still in demand.

Holiday real estates are attracting buyers from Russia and the former Soviet countries and supply meets demand in the luxury segment. In the middle and low segments, supply outstrips demand.

We are looking at a reflux in the home segment as prices are trying to settle, according to Todor Stoyanov, executive director of Prime Property BG.

Real estate investment trusts came round the view that pressure is highest in the holiday segment but said that good projects find buyers.

Property management funds would rather talk about a settling market, sifting through projects and a temporary stagnation than of a crisis.

Park Management Company manager Atanas Georgiev said companies can no longer easily rely on sold or rented projects to finish new ones.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgarian cellphone operator Globul, owned by Greece's OTE, launched a prepaid plan bundled with iPhone’s alternative, Samsung i900 Omnia handset.

The offer taps on the fact that no Bulgarian carrier got the rights to sell the smartphone on the market, the sole place in the EU where it is still unavailable.

Samsung’s official representative and importer for Bulgaria is local company K&K Electronics. The company said Globul does not have exclusive rights to sell the phone so its competitors can offer it as well. The device is priced 1,000 levs.

Mobiltel said it will launch a couple of smartphones by the end of the year in response to iPhone without naming particular manufacturers.

(Dnevnik)