Buy & Sell Bulgaria Insight Newsletter

Marks & Spencer Group Plc is the largest UK clothing retailer.

Photo by www.marksandspencer.com

Marks & Spencer Group Plc, the largest UK clothing retailer, announced it has entered a joint venture with Marinopoulos Group to expand in the Balkans, Bloomberg agency reported.

The retailer bought 50 % of Marks & Spencer Marinopoulos BV, which operates 38 Marks & Spencer stores under franchise across Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and also in Switzerland, for EUR 50 M, the London- based company said in a statement.

“Our joint venture with Marinopoulos will mean we can really put M&S on the map in this part of the world,” Carl Leaver, the retailer’s director of international business, said in the statement, as cited by Bloomberg agency.

There are many birthday boys and girls in May. Our dear colleagues Lili Gospodinova (Corporate Public & Customer Relations Manager), and our clients and good friends Clare Guiver, Alan Coleman, Mario Gatt, Maria Spiteri and Clifford Kyprianou, have their special day this month. We would like to wish them all Many Happy Returns and the best of luck!

It is our company policy to celebrate all Great Events!!!

Ingredients:

1 pc of chicken chest
1 cucumber, 200 gm
2 carrots
Sesame
Vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Dill

Cut the meat and vegetables in stripes and sprinkle the sesame and dill on top. Add the vinegar, oil and salt according to your taste preference. Serves 2. Enjoy!

The name of Aladzha monastery comes from the Turkish word for colourful (”aladzha”) due most probably to the bright colours of its wall paintings, dating back to the early Middle Ages. The monk’s cells, common rooms and sanctuaries, dug directly into the limestone rock and situated on two levels high above the ground, were connected via an external staircase. The lower floor hosted the monks’ private cells, common rooms (i.e. kitchen, dining room) and a small church, while the upper level was dedicated entirely to a chapel. According to some historians, primitive monks’ cells were built and inhabited already in the 4th century AC. The entire monastery is considered to date back to the 12th century AC. Unfortunately, nowadays only few of the frescoes are preserved (most of these to be found in the chapel) but the experience of visiting a monastery dug high above the ground into a steep rock is unforgettable. The monastery is declared a cultural sight and houses a small museum. Less than a kilometer away from the Aladzha Monastery, you can find a similar monastery complex, called Katakombite (The Catacombs). Katakombite has an origin and history similar to those of the Aladzha Monastery, though its remains are far less preserved.

The Aladzha monastery is not a functioning cloister and does not offer accommodation or food. Nevertheless, there is a rich choice of such facilities in the nearby resorts of Golden Sands and St. Konstantin and Elena

The Aladzha rock monastery can be reached easily from Varna and Golden Sands by car or bus with the distance from the bus stop being only a five-minute walk.

The fish restaurant Villa Burov is located in the most picturesque part of the Sea Garden in Varna. More than 100 years ago, the area was the place where ministers, bankers and diplomats would choose to spend their holidays and vacations. Nowadays, the restaurant’s guests can enjoy the symbiosis of nature, the architecture, the luxurious interior and exquisite cuisine. The menu includes fresh fish’s fillet, wild fishes, octopus, squids, Black Tiger shrimps, many salads, pork fillets, beef fillets and a long wine list.

Villa Burov has outside seats in the beautiful garden and inside seats, situated in 4 guest halls on two floors, with 3 bay-windows, air-conditioner, parking lot, kid’s corner in the garden, exquisite interior and background of mainly retro or Italian instrumental music.

Rating of 9/10

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change more often.

Winston Churchill

The Sofia Weekly

An exhibition dedicated to the Cyrillic Alphabet was open by Bulgarian Socialist Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The exhibition, which was organized at the initiative of Bulgarian MEP from Atanas Paparizov, attracted the interest of the European deputies. Its opening was preceded by a lecture and a discussion on the topic “Multilinguism and Inter-Cultural Dialogue - Cyrillic Alphabet’s Message to Europe”.

The leader of the Party of European Socialists group in EP Martin Schulz was a special guest at the ceremony. “The contribution of the Cyrillic alphabet to the cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue of Europe, and to the European linguistic heritage, is especially important”, Schulz said.

The thirty pictures - one for each letter in the Bulgarian alphabet - will be exhibited at the ASP Building of the European Parliament.

Just to let you know of our working hours and staff available during the Easter and May National Holidays. Our staff will be unavailable in end of April and beginning of May 2008. The office will be closed on Monday, 28th April (Easter), Thursday, 1st May (Labour Day) and Tuesday, 6th May (Day of the Bulgarian Army).

Dear friends,

I feel that I owe you a detailed explanation as to why we decided to change the date of the yearly conference “The Eagle Has Landed” from April to late September 2008, and to let you have my comments and thoughts as to the property market situation in Bulgaria and the way I see it developing.

Recently my increased duties and the un-expected flow of clients (this winter was the busiest ever) has kept me so occupied, that I was deprived from the real pleasure I always get, by contacting you personally and regularly!

My aim and vision has always been to create such conditions where your and our investments will have the best possible opportunity to grow! You do realize that this task requires a lot of time and energy and it is not something which can be delegated to either my assistants or to third parties. Not that my assistants could not perform as required, but because I feel that my duty and my loyalty to you all, dictates my personal care and attention.

I had a very tiring and exhausting year which was sealed with my health problem and the disc operation I had in January 2008. Today, right at the start of the spring, I feel full of energy, completely content and extremely happy with the fruits of my labours.

I wanted to share all these with you during the Spring Conference and ask for your approval for what we are about to start doing in a few weeks, which naturally will influence and affect your own investments greatly. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the 24th of April is the Greek Orthodox Good Friday, most of the non British guests and investors couldn’t make it and this fact would have had incomplete and negative results. We had no other choice but to change the date, as we did!

Additionally, I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure of been able to “show you around” the Royal Oakwood and “Marina Gardens”, the construction of which is due to start shortly! I know that you are all waiting to see something grand happening and the time we had until the end of April was not enough to allow us to do something obvious, that would have put your minds at rest.

It is needless to say that seen the start of my vision been realized and coming into being, would be the greatest moment of my life. I want to feel proud in that moment and not to have to apologize and give long senseless explanations. Please bear with me a bit more, I feel I deserve it.

I am sure that you will love what I will show you in September and above all, you will appreciate the impact which it will have on your investments.

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I am happy to let you know that we have now opened another office of Eurolink Investment Group, located in a beautiful part of Nicosia, Cyprus. It is very spacious and luxury and there you will be welcomed by the helpful Milena Maneva, Office Manager. At your disposal are also Yiannos Demetriou, Stelios Keravnos and Michalis Efstathiou. If you live in Cyprus or have visited Nicosia and you request information regarding a certain investment opportunity or property in Bulgaria, call in our local office. The complete address is as follows:

7 Nikokreontos Street

Archangelos

Nicosia, Cyprus

Phone: +357 22 37 15 12

e-mail: office@eurolink-cyprus.com

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME!

There is a new Law for the Trade Register that came into force on 1.01.2008. This Law refers to the registration of new business companies in Bulgaria as well as registrations of all existing companies in the new online trade register. According to this new Law, all existing companies must be registered in the new register by 31.12.2010. If this is not done, they will be removed from the register of companies in Bulgaria resulting in loss of their assets (properties for example).

The new trade register is hosted by the Registration Agency and is planned as a unified data base of all companies in Bulgaria and their details, which will be publicly accessible and centralized. This is a needed and helpful change in the administration and the results will soon be seen.

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International Lead the Leaders Conference
2008, Varna

AIESEC is the biggest international platform established to develop young and perspective people. As a world wide organization AIESEC exists for 60 years, and in Bulgaria operates in some of the best universities for nearly 18 years. AIESEC originates as a global program for educational exchange, and today its purpose is to discover young peoples’ potential and to develop their leadership competencies and some specific skills needed for their successfully realization in today’s and tomorrow’s dynamic business environment.

One of the best AIESEC practices is organizing international leadership conferences. A conference of such large dimensions was organized for the first time by the Varna local office of AIESEC from 13^th to 16^th of March /International Lead the Leaders Conference 2008/ with the great support of Eurolink Investment Group as a general partner of the event. The International Lead the Leaders Conference 2008 in Balchik became the biggest AIESEC conference in Central Eastern Europe for 2008. Present were the best Bulgarian and foreign students, corporate sector representatives, experienced Bulgarian and international trainers and facilitators, alumni. They all united around the idea of leadership, the social responsible business and the positive impact that young people can have in society.

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This month’s employee of the month (April 2008) is our highly respected Yaroslav Stanev, IT Manager of Buy & Sell Ltd. He is an exceptional professional, brilliant person, has a colourful personality and plays an important role in our team. Yaro works on extremely important projects and makes sure their presentation on the Internet is at the highest level. He has been with the company for many years, thus has proved his abilities and indisputably deserves this prize. We congratulate him wholeheartedly and wish him more success and merits in future!

www.News.Dnevnik.BG

Source: NSI /Graphics: Dnevnik

The Bulgarian economy expanded 6.2% in 2007 which in nominal terms translates to 56.52 billion BGN or 28.898 billion EUR, preliminary data of the central bank showed on Monday. This is the fourth year on the trot that the Bulgarian economy has grown by an annual margin larger than 6%. GDP per capita was reported at 3,735.5 EUR.

Q4 2007 economic growth was clocked at 6.9% over the year-ago period, a spurt that was made up for the softer growth patch in Q3 when the farming sector contracted sharply.

The GDP numbers surprised most analysts who were expecting a showing of 5.5% to 6%, mainly due to concerns about the reserved prognosis of the economic performance in the last quarter. The government had projected a Q4 rate of 6.4%. The pleasing GDP metrics were mainly due to strong domestic consumption and solid industrial growth in 2007.

The GDP share of industrial manufacture jumped 14% to 26.5%. The biggest growth contribution came from the processing industry (+15.4%), construction (+16.9%) and production of electricity and heating energy (+17.2%). The only decliner in terms of value added contribution to the economy last year was the mining industry.

The services industry posted a growth of 7.5%, increasing its share of GDP to 50%. Within the sector, the top performers were financial services (+34%), hotels and restaurants (+11.8), commercial intermediation (+6.6%). Transportation and telecommunications turned in a growth rate of 4.3%.

The farming industry, battered by inclement weather conditions, posted a record decline of 30% in 2007 with its GDP share shrinking to 5.1%.

The central bank also restated the 2006 GDP figure to 6.3% from 6.1% after receiving additional data form the customs administration, the balance of payments and others.

Look out for our new advertisement in the April issue of the Inflight Magazine of Bulgaria Air:

There are many birthday boys and girls in April. Our dear colleagues Ginka (making sure that all offices and apartments of the Group are nice and clean), Nevin Halil (Legal Department, Buy & Sell Bulgaria) and Jessy Karaivanova (Legal Department, Eurolink Investment Group), and our clients and good friends Stephen Day, Darren Finch, Kristina Trodden, Latesha Tuck and Antonis Konstantinidis, have their special day this month. We would like to wish them all Many Happy Returns and the best of luck!

It is our company policy to celebrate all Great Events!!!

Varna Airport offers convenient flights and very good connections to Varna. There are regular flights to and from Vienna, Sofia, Odessa, Tel Aviv, Budapest and London, and during the summer season - Copenhagen, Munich, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Berlin, Luxembourg, Oslo, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg, Bratislava, Manchester, Brussels, Oslo, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Helsinki, Marseille, etc, as there are many charter flights. More information about the schedule of the regular flights from and to Varna, you can find at: www.varna-airport.bg

British Airways fly from London Gatwick to Varna every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, and returns are the same days. During the Summer Season there are flights on Wednesday and Saturday, and returns are the same days. Expansion of British Airways services in Bulgaria demonstrates the company’s dedication to the rapidly developing aviation market and tourism industry in Bulgaria. For more details visit: www.britishairways.com

Read about other airlines at: http://www.buy-sell-bulgaria.com/varna_flights_information.php

Eurolink Investment Group is happy to announce that we are in the process of publishing a company magazine, which will include information about the Group, property market trends, investment opportunities, useful information while you are in Bulgaria and articles about the country and especially Varna, the Sea Capital. The first issue is to be ready by the end of April 2008 and we welcome you to give your ideas on what you would like to know or you would enjoy reading, at: lili@buy-sell-bulgaria.com

The Stone Forest is a fabulous natural phenomena most known with its Bulgarian name “Pobitite Kamani”, which means “stones beaten into the ground”, a name completely corresponding to the reality. These are numerous limestone pillars as high as 10 m, hollow or solid cylinders, truncated cones, different bulgings and single rocks and cliffs.
Nowadays is believed that these carbonate-cemented sandstone structures were formed due to microbial methane oxidation around natural gas seepages - so called “bubbling reefs”. The cementation occurred in the subbottom marine sands some 50 million years ago and now are exposed by subsecuent erosion of the surrounding unconsolidated sediments and vertical tectonic movements of the earth crust.

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You can prepare patatnik as a main course. In the old times during cold winter months potatoes used to represent one of the main foods of the Bulgarian diet. They have even been used to make bread. Here are the ingredients:

6 tbsp flour
1/2 cup oil
water
1 tbsp butter - melted

For the filling:
3 lbs potatoes, grated - around 10 big ones
4 onions, grated
3 eggs, beaten

1 spoonful of fresh mint (or dried oregano)
1/2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

Make a soft paste of the flour, 1/2 cup oil and as much water as necessary. Leave it for 15 minutes at room temperature, and then divide it in two parts, one a little larger than the other. Spread the smaller mass to form a sheet 4-5 cm wider than the bottom of your baking dish. Mix together the grated potatoes and onions, the beaten eggs, the mint and the salt. Place the bigger part of the paste in a buttered baking dish, spread around to form a sheet in a way that it covers the baking dish and sticks out at all ends. Add the filling and cover with the smaller sheet you already prepared. Turn the ends of the first sheet inside and pinch the two sheets together to prevent the filling from coming out while baked. Bake the meal at 375º F for about 25 minutes or until it turns rosy.