The Vienna Stock Exchange was still interested in buying the state’s 44 per cent stake in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the VSE said in a statement.
The reason was that many VSE partners were already present on the BSE and future co-operation would be eased by a common electronic trading platform. Currently VSE uses the Xetra system. Last month the BSE chose to adopt the same platform offered by Deutsche Boerse.
In other news, road construction companies will be the new fashion on BSE, according to Bulgarian-language Pari daily. The number of road construction companies listed on the BSE will increase to three at the end of October after Trace Group Hold’s prospectus for initial public offering was approved by the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC). Holding Roads and Moststroy are already listed on the BSE. Trace Group Hold will issue a total of 200 000 shares with 110.5 leva issue value each. The total value of the issue amounts to 22.1 million leva.
Holding Roads and Moststroy are Trace Group’s main competitors in the sector. Holding Roads is the largest of the three companies, a comparison of their reports for the first half of 2007 shows. Holding Roads generated 39.14 million leva sales revenue as at June 30, 2007, up 111 per cent year on year. The company’s net profit after tax amounted to 4.865 million leva. Trace Group Hold’s revenue from core activities totalled 23.657 million leva as at June 30 2007, down by 52.5 per cent year-on-year. The net profit of the company was 5.919 million leva, up by 189.58 per cent year-on-year. Moststroy’s net sales revenue went up by 84.73 per cent to 13.622 million leva. The company has also managed to reduce its loss by 60.61 per cent to 364 000 leva.
A small number of large-scale orders account for the bulk of the revenue generated by road construction companies, according to Nikola Tsokev, broker at Postbank.
Meanwhile, October 17 was Balkancar Zarya’s day. On October 12, the BSE board of directors decided to move Balkancar Zarya’s stock listed for trade to segment A of the unofficial market of the BSE. Balkancar Zarya specialises in the production of rims and disc wheels for industrial vehicles. In early September it acquired 51 per cent in Assenovgrad-based Balkancar Ruen for 3.376 million leva. Trade in shares issued as part of the 1 156 799 leva capital increase of Balkancar Zarya also started in the beginning of September. The stock of the company, which is still traded on segment B of the unofficial market, depreciated by 6.93 per cent to 13.43 leva a share on October 12.
Bulgarian real estate investment trust (REIT) Agro Finance was also on the run. In a filing to the BSE on October 15, the company said it would seek to raise 19 million leva through a capital increase by the end of 2007. Agro Finance wants to double its capital to 32.28 million leva through the issue of 16 137 954 shares with a par value of 1.0 lev ($0.7/0.5 euro) and an issue price of 1.2 leva each.
The purpose of the capital increase according to the company is to expand its farmland portfolio, which exceeded 4000 hectares at end-August 2007. Agro Finance plans to rent 60 per cent of its land in 2007-2008. According to Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily, Agro Finance is among the biggest REITs in the country investing in farmland. The leader in this segment is REIT Elana Agricultural Land Opportunity Fund with 21 300 ha at end-August. The runner-up is Advance Terafund with 19 250 ha of farmland at end-August.
