Bulgaria’s brewing industry brings the state budget some BGN 297 M annually, according to the Chair of the Bulgarian Brewers’ Union and General Manager of Heineken Zagorka Ruud van den Eijnden.

The total added value of the Bulgarian beer production and distribution is estimated at BGN 219 M, Ruud van den Eijnden said at the Fall Beer Fair of the Brewers Union in Bulgaria.

He further revealed that Bulgarian breweries employ directly 3 000 people, and the respective distribution firms – 8 000.

The 2011 Fall Beer Fair was part of a triple celebration of the Bulgarian Brewers’ Union – 130 years of brewing industry in Bulgaria; 20 years of the Brewers’ Union in Bulgaria, and 55 years of brewing science research in Bulgaria.

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The name of the actual buyer of the State-owned cigarette-maker monopoly Bulgartabac is going to be revealed very soon, Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, promised.

Speaking Saturday from the Black Sea city of Varna, Traikov, however, stressed that the most important issue was who the investor is, not the buyer. He added that there is no guarantee about the ID of the latter, “unless it is one of the strategic ones.”

The Minister explained the possibility the tobacco monopoly can be resold stands, but whoever acquires it, will have the same commitments, reiterating social ones, related to the jobs of people at the company, were among the best protected.

In an earlier TV interview, also on Saturday, the Minister said the contract guarantees jobs at the Holding, and the company’s continuing pay of taxes and fees to the State. He pointed out workers there have excellent job conditions, and their labor contracts are among the most generous in the country.

When asked who is going to be the guarantor that Bulgartabac will comply with the contract, Traikov stated the control belongs fully to the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Agency.

The only member of the Agency’s Supervisory Board, Rusi Statkov, to vote against the deal, declared earlier that Bulgartabac must not be sold since the contract is against national interests. The Minister stressed again the deal was a good one taking into account the current situation.

After five-hour debates on Friday, the Supervisory Council of the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Agency approved the sale of Bulgartabac to o BT Invest, a firm wholly owned by Russia‘s government bank VTB.

The Supervisory Board of the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Agency is a political body, elected by the Parliament. It consist of three representatives of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party, one each from the opposition left-wing from the quota of the opposition left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, the opposition ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB, and the far-right, nationalist Ataka.

The price offered by BT Invest, the sole bidder standing, after several major players withdrew, is EUR 100.1 M with investments of BGN 7 M in the next two years and the commitment to purchase 5 000 metric tons of Bulgarian tobacco a year (about 14% of the crop). The draft contract also includes a clause banning a resell in the next 5 years.

Meanwhile, the same day, the labor union of the Bulgartabac workers organized a protest rally in front of the Privatization Agency’s building in Sofia. They oppose the sale of the cigarette maker to the only remaining bidder in the public procurement procedure and insist that the Governing Board rejects the offer.

In a declaration to Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, the Union demands halting the deal and the resignation of the Privatization Agency’s CEO, Emil Karanikolov. About 500 people took part in the rally.

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A Bulgarian exterior designer, Deyan Denkov, is the author of the design concept of Renault‘s latest concept car, the Renault Frendzy.

Denkov, a native of Yambol in Eastern Bulgaria, has been working for Renault since 2007, according to the Renault website.

“I took inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including unconventionally shaped aircraft such as the Airbus Beluga and the Antonov 224,” Denkov explains, as cited by The Daily Telegraph, adding that the Frendzy is both a business tool and family car that moves away from the traditional format for commercial vehicles. The Renault Frendzy will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Daily Telegraph points out that in an attempt to combine the dual roles of commercial and family use, the Frendzy has an asymmetrical body. On the passenger side is a sliding external door with a large screen that can display “useful messages” or adverts either when the car is parked up or on the move, reflecting the Frendzy’s commercial role. The driver’s side, on the other hand, gets a pair of center opening doors, representing “the world of the family.”

When in work mode the Frendzy has just a driver’s seat and features green interior lighting, while the wing mirrors are upright. Switch to family mode and a passenger seat folds out of the floor and dashboard, a rear bench lifts out in the floor, the mirrors swivel to a horizontal position and the interior lighting switches to orange.

The work/play theme continues with the ability to plug the new Blackberry PlayBook device into the centre console, through which the exterior screen display is controlled.

The Bulgarian subsidiary of Swiss-based engineering manufacturer ABB Group has marked the employment of its 1000th employee in Bulgaria, the company announced in a statement.

ABB Bulgaria has managed to accomplish the doubling the number of its employees within two years, thus securing jobs to a significant number of people, even in regions with a high unemployment rate. The company statement stresses its slogan “A better world begins with you”.

Global engineering giant ABB has been present in Bulgaria through the ASEA and respectively BROWN BOVERI companies for over 80 years and since 1993, through a local organization. At present, ABB Bulgaria has a major role on the Bulgarian market of power and automation equipment, supplying solutions for energy efficiency.

ABB operates in Bulgaria through three companies in six locations, the main focus being on production.

The three ABB manifacturing plants situated in Bulgaria’s Petrich, Sevlievo and Rakovski. They products and components, acting either as key suppliers to other ABB factories within the ABB Group, or delivering ABB products to end customers.

The production within the ABB factories in Bulgaria is accomplished according to ISO 9001 standard certification.

“We at ABB have always believed that our employees are the greatest asset of our company and thus our primary investment is the one we make in people, in the development of their skills and talents. This is actually what a better world begins with.” – said Peter Simon, Country manager of ABB in Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova.

ABB Automation EOOD in Rakovski located in the Rakovski Industrial Zone in the south is the most recent industrial unit of the ABB Group in Bulgaria, which started production in 2009 and which has recently celebrated 500 employees in the Plovdiv region alone.

ABB in Bulgaria has been recognized as the “Investor of the year” in 2009 by the InvestBulgaria Agency and winner of the “2010 Award” offered by the Bulgarian-German Chamber of Commerce, as an acknowledgement for the ABB factory in Rakovski which employed 300 people during 2010.

Last year ABB opened a Turbochargers Service Station in Varna, operating a workshop equipped with up-to-date tools and technology, which serves customers such as ship owners, shipping companies, power plant operators and owners within a 7 days/24 hours schedule.

The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 124,000 people.

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Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, the two biggest companies, which purchased public procurement documents for acquiring a majority stake in Bulgaria‘s cigarette maker Bulgartabac, have no intentions to bid, reports say.

The two companies have bought documents just with the aim of collecting information, they have no plans to bid in the tender, Dnevnik daily reported, citing insiders.

Ten companies, including four top-notch investors, purchased tender documentation for the sale of 79.83% of the tobacco group by the deadline on Thursday, the government’s asset-selling body said in a statement on Friday.

The four major companies are British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris Bulgaria and South Korea‘s KT&G Corporation.

The other six candidates are Bulgarian law firms Kambourov & Partners and Dzhingov, Guginski, Kiuchukov and Velichkov; Bulgarian-based King‘s Tobacco; Austrian-based CB Family Office Service and BT Invest GmbH, and US-based Science Capital management LLC.

A majority stake – 79,83% – in Bulgaria‘s state cigarette producer Bulgartabac Holding, whose management has been harshly criticized in recent years, was put on sale on April 26 after years of procrastination.

The long-delayed procedure was officially given the go-ahead by the agency for privatization and post-privatization control through an announcement in the State Gazette on May 10.

The agency invited strategic and financial investors to buy tender documents by June 10.

The bidder with the highest offer will be selected for buyer. No initial price has been set.

The buyer of Bulgartabac is expected to be known in September.

The consultant for the Bulgartabac sale, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, was picked by the Bulgarian government in February 2010.

Two of the less profitable plants of Bulgartabac holding – in the cities of Plovdiv and Stara Zagora - were sold in 2009 through the Sofia Stock Exchange – for BGN 31 M and BGN 18 M respectively.

The holding currently owns the two larger and more consolidated factories in Sofia and Blagoevgrad as well as a number of commercial brands.

The two affiliates of Ideal Standard International that operate in the Bulgarian town of Sevlievo were formally merged in one company, officials have announced.

The merger between Ideal Standard Bulgaria and Ideal Standard Vidima was completed on January 31, 2011, company executives announced at a news conference in Sofia. The merger was originally supposed to be finalized a day earlier; the merging did not affect the production operations of the two plants.

Thus, as of February 1, 2011, the two subsidiaries of Ideal Standard in Bulgaria are in a single company known as “Ideal Standard Vidima” Jsc.

Officials have announced that the reason behind the decision was to simplify the legal structure of Ideal Standard International in the countries where such procedure was possible.

They have pointed out that the merger of the two Bulgarian plants will strengthen the company’s position as one of the largest private employers in Bulgaria with a total of 3 300 employees. The merger is also supposed to help improve further the service provided to the end consumers thanks to better flexibility and efficiency.

The merger has not affected the labor contracts of the Bulgarian employees of Ideal Standard; the manufacturing operations of the company in Bulgaria will remain the same.

Before the merger, Ideal Standard Bulgaria produced ceramic sanitary fixtures and Ideal Standard Vidima was specialized in producing bathroom sanitary ware, fittings and accessories.

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The British company Zero Carbon 2020 plans to begin, during the second quarter of 2011, putting together electric cars in a plant in Bulgaria’s southern city of Stara Zagora.

The initial investment is estimated at BGN 6.5 M, and if the market reacts well, it is planned it would reach EUR 10-12 M.

Two models will be put together in Stara Zagora – an urban and a sports one. These models can run 300 km without the need to be recharged, with average global electric cars run currently estimated at 150 km, according to Zero Carbon.

The company will further develop models with the so-called inductive charge – without cables to connect the vehicle with the charging stations.

Zero Carbon work in partnership with another UK company – Liberty E Cars, which is considering investing in Bulgaria as well – in the manufacturing of electric cars parts (batteries, electronics etc).

One year ago, the international fund Corus Ventures announced they have secured a British investment for the making of electric cars in Stara Zagora. Later, the investors visited the city to research the possibilities and the time frame of launching the production line for, as it was reported then, a 4-seat electric car that could reach speeds of 120 km/h.

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