Bulgartabac Holding, the Bulgarian state-owned tobacco monopoly, sold its shares in Stara Zagora unit on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on July 14. A total 1.07 million of the company's 1.18 million shares changed hands in 75 separate transactions.

The reference price for the larger packages was 19.75 leva per share.

The majority stake in the company was purchased by a single buyer, while two separate buyers bought minority stakes. The names of the buyers of the larger packages will be announced after the Central Depository settles the transactions.

Bulgartabac will pocket just over 18 million leva from the sale of its 78.2 per cent stake in the Stara Zagora factory.

On July 15, the holding company will offer on the bourse a 3.12 per cent in its Plovdiv cigarette factory. The minimum price is set at 24.9 leva per share. The majority package, comprising 810,000 shares, together with what is left of the minority stake, would go on sale on July 16.

The future of the other two Bulgartabac cigarette factories, in Sofia and Blagoevgrad, remains uncertain.