Bulgaria

A road construction company, believed to be controlled by billionaire Vassil Bozhkov, announced it has filed for insolvency, Novinite.com reported. Holding Roads, the leading company in the tie-in, which won the tender for the construction of the longest section in Trakiya highway, linking the city of Yambol and the town of Karnobat, made the statement exactly two years after a spate of reports about its poor financial state flooded local media. The company posted a loss of BGN 6.12 M at the end of September 2011 and said its debts to banks and non-banking financial institutions increase.

The violent protests that forced Bulgaria's cabinet from power this week underscore the lose-lose situation facing the European Union's newest members as they struggle to stop economic downturn and stem growing public anger, Reuters reported. Ruling parties which stick with strict austerity programmes to win investor trust risk being bounced from power by voters fed up with cost cutting and tax hikes. Governments which loosen the fiscal screws or try unconventional ways to rebuild support before elections may alienate investors and invite more pain down the road.

Prime Minister Boiko Borisov of Bulgaria submitted his government’s resignation on Wednesday after a tumultuous week of public anger over rising electricity prices, corruption and worsening living standards that ignited mass protests nationwide and led to bloody clashes with the police on Tuesday night, the International Herald Tribune reported. “The people gave us power, and today we are returning it,” Mr. Borisov said on Wednesday morning in Parliament, according to local news reports.

Bulgaria's finance minister stepped down on Monday after tens of thousands of people took to the streets over the weekend to protest electricity prices, raising pressure on the government, which until recently had managed to retain its popularity despite an austerity drive, The Wall Street Journal reported. Simeon Djankov, a former World Bank official who won the respect of financial markets for undertaking painful reforms but courted controversy in Bulgaria as a fiscal hawk, said he was resigning as finance minister, effective Sunday. Mr.

Bulgarian telecoms operator Vivacom obtained UK court approval to proceed with a 1.7 billion euro ($2.1 billion) debt restructuring, ending two years of wrangling with lenders and failed attempts to sell the company, Reuters reported. Under a deal approved by Mr Justice Vos in a hearing at the High Court in London, Russia's second-biggest bank VTB Capital and Bulgaria's Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) are buying over 70 percent of Vivacom and existing lenders are writing off 1 billion euros of debts.

PCCW and its chairman's privately owned fund plan to rescue debt-laden Vivacom, Bulgaria's biggest fixed-line operator, by jointly investing €180 million ($232 million) in return for a 51 percent stake, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. PCCW executive director Alex Arena met Vivacom's senior lenders on June 22 to discuss the matter, the South China Morning Post reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the meeting. It was unclear how much of the investment would come from PCCW, the paper said.

Bulgaria, the newest and poorest member of the European Union, is emerging as a fiscal model for a number of EU countries struggling to fend off debt crises, The Wall Street Journal reported. Despite Bulgaria's budgetary rigor, other EU members' swelling debt burdens may end up foiling Sofia's aspirations to join the euro in three years. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 and posted the smallest budget deficit among the 27 member states last year, according to the finance ministry. It is expected to be the only EU nation to balance its budget in 2010.

British coffee retailer Coffee Republic said on Thursday its operating business had been bought out of administration by Arab Investment Ltd, a property firm best known for plans to build a London skyscraper, Reuters reported. Arab Investments said in a separate statement that it planned to expand the business, which currently includes 80 outlets -- around 60 in Britain and the rest in countries including Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. Read more.