The Stara Zagora and Plovdiv factories of Bulgarian tobacco producer Bulgartabac Holding would be auctioned off at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) between July 11 and 15, respectively, the company said as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

The state holds 78.18 per cent in each of the factories. The state shareholding of both factories will be divided into minority and majority packages, respectively.

The tender for the sale of the minority 1.77 per cent packages of Sluntse Stara Zagora will last four days and will start on July 11. The company hopes to generate 0.394 million leva at a price of 18.90 leva each. The majority package of the factory, 0.9 million shares, will be put up for sale on July 14 and the sales price will be decided at the time.

The same procedure will be used with the Plovdiv factory. The minority package will be sold on July 15 and last through July 16. The package includes 33 682 shares, which equals 3.12 per cent of the holding. The minimum price per share is set to 24.90 leva. The majority packages will be sold in its entirety on July 16 and will comprise 0.81 million leva alongside the outstanding shares of the minority package.

According to experts, the asked price is much higher than the market price. During the bourse session, the shares of the Stara Zagora holding closed 11.14 leva a share on June 25, an increase by 58 per cent. Price of the Plovdiv company shares hovered around 10 leva.

The decision to sell both factories was taken by the company's supervisory council in early May. The two holdings will be offered alongside their issued licences for production and processing of tobacco and tobacco goods.