News For Bulgarian Estates and Property Market

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Jul. 2008 Central railway station in Plovdiv to be renovated Plovdiv’s architectural studio Arkont-A won the tender called to pick a design for the renovation of the city’s central railway station, mediapool.bg reported.

The National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) has said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily, that the investor selected to do the renovation will also be granted building permission for additional construction in the area as compensation.

The architectural project amounts to 150 million euro and envisions building two glass domes with a diameter of 25m, the construction of retail and residential complex as well as complicated infrastructure of underground tunnels connecting Plovdiv’s centre with the southern part of the city.

The new buildings will be owned by the investor, NRIC has said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

Further negotiations with the defense and finance ministries regarding the land plots selected for the new construction are expected to take place within the upcoming six months. The reason is that, currently, the offices of the National Revenue Agency are located on the land plot.

At the same time, according to mediapool.bg, Sofia’s central railway station will also undergo renovation, which as of now is estimated at 35 million leva. The project features the construction of a multi-functional building with office and retail spaces as well as a parking lot.

Interest in the Sofia project so far has been expressed from Spanish investor Riofisa, which already has a project in the vicinity of the rail station, in addition to Italian and Austrian developers.

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Jul. 2008 More delays for Vidin-Calafat Danube bridge The project to build a second bridge over the Danube River between Vidin in Bulgaria and Calafat in Romania has run into new snags, which may delay its completion, Dnevnik daily reported on July 3.

Rather than change the original design, Bulgaria's Transport Ministry has decided to carry out a new assessment whether the original design of the bridge will be robust enough to withstand the test of time and elements, the daily said.

The company picked to build the bridge and the adjoining infrastructure on the Bulgarian side, Spain's Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), is still around four months behind schedule, but confident that it will meet its deadline to complete the bridge by end-2010, Bulgarian Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev said, as quoted by Dnevnik.

Part of the delay was caused by the slow progress of geological surveys and expropriation of privately-owned land for the needs of the project, but also by the refusal of the project managers, the consortium between French Ingerop and British High-Point Rendel, to accept the Spanish company's design for the bridge.

The project would cost 226 million euro, with nearly two thirds of the funding provided by the European Union: 70 million euro under pre-accession aid programme Ispa and a further 70 million via a loan from the European Investment Bank.

However, with global commodity prices constantly rising, the costs of the project could well turn out higher than initially estimated, Dnevnik said.

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Jun. 2008 Looking for the Exit Those keen on camping and music who are looking for ‘exit’ form the everyday routine may find Novi Sad an interesting option for a summer vacation. It is not that the camping sites along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, at least those, who still exist, are not an appealing option, but Exit Fest can provide the campers with something more: great live music for every taste.

It claims to be the biggest music festival in South-Eastern Europe and takes place in the picturesque Petrovaradin Fortress in the Serbia’s second largest city, Novi Sad, some 400 km to the north-west of Sofia.

Since its first edition in 2000, Exit Fest had brought to its stages names like Kosheen, Roni Size, David Morales, Asian Dub Foundation, Stereo MC's, Moloko, Massive Attack, Cypress Hill, Brand New Heavies, Timo Maas, Roger Sanchez, Satoshie Tomiie, White Stripes, Garbage, Slayer, Apocalyptica, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, The Cardigans, The Cult, Billy Idol, Him, Goldie, David Guetta, Hernan Cattaneo, Snoop Dogg, The Prodigy, The Beastie Boys and Robert Plant, among others.

This year’s edition, to be held on six stages on July 10-13, also sounds promising with some 140 bands and performers arriving in Serbia for it. Deep Dish’s Dubfire ans Sharam, Kultur Shock, Manu Chao, Ministry, Sex Pistols and Sven Vath are to perform at Exit Fest 2008. The parties start in the early evenings and finish around 6am on the next morning.

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Jun. 2008 Investment Fund to Achieve Maximum Farming Effectiveness in Bulgaria The Agricultural Investment Fund "Ceres', one of the biggest investors in agricultural lands in Bulgaria has invested BGN 2 M in farming machinery in 2008b and plans to invest at least this amount in 2009, according to the company's pres release Tuesday.

The Investment Fund has the goal to accelerate its farming business, which is located mainly in Northern Bulgaria.

The Fund had purchased four powerful tractors, two 600 and 510 horsepower "Caterpillar Challengers" and two 450 and 541 horsepower "Quadtracs", The new acquisitions bring the company closer to the maximum effective farm production by one of the most important agricultural indexes - the level of mechanization of the farm production.

The new powerful tractors would reduce manual labor and accelerate production while providing the tractors' operators with the best possible working conditions.

The Caterpillar Challenger MT875B holds the world cultivation record - 644 hectares in 24 hours, while Case Quadtrac STX450 and Quadtrac STX535 are the top products of CNH Case New Holland - a leading manufacturer of farm equipment.

The "Ceres" Fund has been created in 2006 and its owned by foreign joint stock companies from the US and Western Europe while 30% of the fund's capital belongs to finance institutions such as Raiffeisen Centrobank, Firebird Management, two funds of the biggest grain traders in the world - Black River Asset Management and Mezzanine Management and to former investment bankers from institutions such as Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.