Bulgarian company Universal K ranked 15th in the ninth annual Central and Eastern Europe Technology Fast50 ranking compiled by consultancy firm Deloitte, making it the second time it made the Deloitte list, Bulgarian-language daily Pari reported on October 15. The other two Bulgarian companies in the ranking were Technologica on 26th spot, and ITCE on 48.

Delloite's ranking lists the 50 fastest developing firms in the IT sector from Central and Eastern Europe. The top spot went to Polish company Blue Media, which recorded revenue growth of 10 027 per cent.

Universal K specialises in distribution, system integration and development of IT and telecommunications products. In the 2007 ranking, the company was in the third place after posting a revenue growth of 2900 per cent, while this year the figure was 1393 per cent.

Technologica develops software and has the Bulgarian National Bank among its customers. Its income growth was 624 per cent.

ITCE provides IT services, technical solutions, management consulting, education and certification of organisations and companies from the public and private sector. Its income growth was 328 per cent. The Bulgarian companies took part in the ranking for second time.

The companies that made the 2008 ranking are from nine countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Estonia. Nearly half of the companies in the list, 24, are in the software industry, followed by 18 internet firms.

The firms in the ranking had to meet several criteria, including having annual operational incomes of at least 50 000 euro for the period 2003/07, developing or producing own technologies, or devoting considerable part of its capital to developing activities.