German steel distributor Kloeckner & Co has increased to its stake in Bulgarian company Metalsnab to 99.9 per cent, which trades in ferrous and non-ferrous metals, metal products, raw materials and metal scrap.

Previously, the international firm held 77 per cent in the Bulgarian firm, which has been renamed Kloeckner Metalsnab.

Kloeckner Metalsnab executive director Paul Spranger has said that the company has poured some 100 000 euro into its Bulgarian unit in the first half of the year, hoping to outdo last year’s profit of 37 million euro.

Spranger did not rule out possible further acquisitions in Bulgaria.

Now the company will target to boost efficiency, improve working atmosphere and tighten security.

Kloeckner Metalsnab sells some 90 percent of its produce on the domestic market and is active also in the Balkans, Cyprus, Germany and the Czech Republic. The company plans to step up pipe production, which now accounts for 10 percent of its total output, Spranger said.

In 1992, Kloeckner & Co and the Bulgarian company set up the joint venture Kloeckner Metal. Later on the German company acquired a seven per cent stake in Metalsnab to add a further 70 per cent in March 2008.

“This move is an important step in our efforts to step up operations in Eastern Europe,” said Kloeckner & Co supervisory board chair Thomas Ludwig.

Source: Dnevnik.bg