An electrical installation construction company received a permit for recycling electrical and electronic equipment, mediapool.bg said.

On December 13, Environment and Water Affairs Ministry announced that Eltechresource had received the second permit in Bulgaria for collecting and recycling of electronic waste, mediapool.bg said.

The announcement came more than a month after the permit was issued on November 1 2007.

Against expectations, the long awaited second permit was not issued to one of the four companies which had registered this activity and had been candidates for the permit for over a year, mediapool.bg said.
Instead, the license was granted to a company which was registered on May 30 2007.

Environment Minister Djevdet Chakurov had prolonged a decision on the second permit by returning documents to the four companies, while the company with the first license, Ekobultech managed to get a 35 per cent market share in the market for recycling of electronic waste. It was said that Ekobultech had close ties with Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), the party of Chakurov.

In the spring of 2007, Charkurov promised that "within two weeks" there would be competition over the recycling of electronic waste, but only now he announced his decision, mediapool.bg said.

It was still unclear who the owners of the new company were, represented only by its managing director Ivan Kobakov, who was also owner of a taxi company, which carried his name.

Eltechresource was owned by four companies, research by mediapool.bg learned. Fifty per cent was owned by Splavkomers, a company which traded in a variety of goods and which owned Makmetal. The latter, in turn, owned 40 per cent of Eltechresource. According to the company registration, Makmetal had closed its business on November 27 2007, which would make the ownership of the new company questionable, mediapool.bg said.

The remaining 10 per cent of Eltechresource where owned by two companies, each with a five per cent share, KMT-2 and AGT. Both companies were owned by Angel Groudev, according to registrations of the two companies.