Close to 120 companies have requested re-registration on the first day of operations of the new Registry Agency (RA).
Eight of the companies had sent their documents electronically, Dnevnik daily said.

The figures were unofficial and included newly registered companies as well re-registration of existing ones. The RA said they would announce the official statistics, after these had been presented to Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva, who was responsible for the reform.

Until January 20 only new companies would be allowed to register, because of the annual stock-taking at the courts, where company files are kept.

By law, all Bulgarian companies would have to re-register before the end of 2010. Those who do not re-register, would be liquidated. Bozjidar Danev, chairperson of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) said that the BIA expected that, from the close to 1.6 million registered companies, only around 258 000 were active. He said part of the remaining 1.3 million companies was expected to be emptied out or involved in illegal activities.