CONSULTING companies operating on a global scale see a lot of potential for foreign investments in Bulgaria and the rest of the South East European (SEE) region.
The statement was made on November 15 by Panos Papazoglou, the new country-managing partner of Ernst & Young Bulgaria. Papazoglou came to Sofia in early September to take over from Nick Davies, who has been transferred to the company’s Romanian subsidiary.
Papazoglou’s career with Ernst & Young (E&Y) began when he joined the company 17 years ago. Recently, he worked as director of quality and risk management at E&Y Greece in Athens.
Although specialised in the field of risk management for assurance advisory and business services, Papazoglou has also gained substantial expertise over the years from engagements across a wide range of service lines including financial and internal audits (including procedures, development and implementation), due diligence and others.
In the past decade, Papazoglou has been responsible for a vast number of projects in the SEE region, including initiatives of the European Commission (EC). Papazoglou said he had been involved in evaluation and auditing procedures related to privatisation and other projects funded by the EC.
He said he was very optimistic about the future of Bulgaria after the country joins the European Union.
“We see a lot of opportunities for investment in this country and we are not the only ones to realise this potential,” Papazoglou said, adding that potential investors from Western Europe and the US approached them with enquiries about Bulgaria on a daily basis.
Asked whether his Greek experience and origin was the reason for his transfer to Bulgaria - he could well support the company’s relation with the strong Greek business presence here - Papazoglou said it was his knowledge of the local market and his regional expertise that had brought him to this country.
“Greek businesses have not been very active in Bulgaria lately and they have started losing their leading position as foreign investors here,” said Diana Nikolaeva, head of the Transaction Advisory Services department at E&Y Bulgaria. She said that of late, interest in Bulgaria had mostly been expressed by companies from the UK, France, Spain, Japan and Poland.
The rules for financial reporting and the tax legislation in Bulgaria are to experience a serious shift on the final path of this country to the EU. Therefore, Papazoglou believes that the demand for consulting, auditing and tax services will rise. Another aspect of this shift is also related to the funding that the EU provides to its member states, which Bulgaria hopes to become in 2007.
“Until very recently, the EC was evaluating completed projects and whether they have been implemented properly in financial and operational terms. Now the Commission wants to have thorough feasibility studies before extending any funding and this makes consulting inevitable, as most of the companies cannot handle the procedure alone,” Papazoglou said.
E&Y has been in Bulgaria since 1992. In 2002 it merged with the Bulgarian office of Arthur Andersen (now called just Andersen), which lost most of its business amid the Enron scandal in the US.
E&Y operates in 10 countries in SEE. Its core activities include assurance and advisory business services, transaction advisory, tax advice and legal support. The latter is provided in Bulgaria by the E&Y associated law firm, PI Partners, employing the local expertise of the Dinova & Rusev Law Office.
