EYEING BULGARTABAC
Four multinational tobacco companies have expressed interest in buying Bulgaria’s Bulgartabac Holding, Pari daily said on April 16. Candidates included Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco. The reason why the tobacco behemoths have renewed their interest in the company was their desire to keep and expand the market share of their own brands in Bulgaria, Bulgartabac’s privatisation consultant, Vladimir Karolev, was quoted as saying by Pari.

NUMBER PORTABILITY
Bulgaria’s three mobile phone operators - M-Tel, Globul and Vivatel - struck on April 10 the long-awaited number portability agreement, Bulgarian news agency BTA said. The agreement shows that all operators had the required network capacity to introduce the number portability service.

200 MORE JOBS
Chipboard products maker Kronospan BG plans to create 200 jobs in the next three years following its 110 million euro investment in a new plant in the Haskovo region in southern Bulgaria. About 40 per cent of the plant’s output will be sold domestically and the remainder will be exported.

GREAT PLANS
An Israeli company was planning to invest 160 million euro in production of biofuels in the town of Smyadovo in Shoumen region, Nikolai Nikolov, deputy regional governor of Shoumen, told Standard daily on April 11. Nikolov did not reveal the name of the company, but said that the project had been discussed by President Georgi Purvanov during his visit to Israel in March.

CONSUMPTION UP
Electricity consumption in Bulgaria increased by seven per cent in the first quarter of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, Mardik Papazyan, executive director of the National Electricity Company, told an energy forum in Varna, as quoted by Pari daily on April 16. Consumption for the full year was expected to go up by between two and three per cent. Bulgaria was on its way to regain its position as a leading electricity exporter in 2010, after the two 335-megawatt units of Maritsa Iztok 1 thermal power plant are re-connected to the power grid, along with the 80-megawatt Tsankov Kamak hydro power system.

DIEMA VISION
Diema Vision owns four TV channels in Bulgaria - Diema, Diema 2, Diema Family and MM TV. The Manager Profile article published in Issue 15 of The Sofia Echo refers to Diema + and Diema Extra channels, both of which are no longer part of Diema Vision’s portfolio.