The shares of Sopharma Trading have been registered with Central Depository, the institution's weekly bulletin reveals. The company may be the first public company listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange this autumn.

The company recently increased capital from 20 mln leva (10.225 mln euros) to 30 mln leva (15.338 mln euros) via issue of 10 mln common, registered, paperless voting shares with a face value of 1 lev each

Sopharma Trading appeared as a result of the merger between distributors Sanita Trading, Kaliman, Global Medical, Consupharm, and Elpharma, which took place in 2006. The companies consolidation started in 2004 as part of the tendency for horizontal and vertical integration of the pharmaceutical sector in Bulgaria.

The company offers a variety of more than 6,000 products and an auto park with more than 130 vehicles of different size and tonnage. Sopharma Trading has modern storage facilities in seven big cities in Bulgaria – Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Burgas, Razlog, and Vratsa.

Each day the company services 1,200 clients – pharmacies (both pharmaceutical chains and small pharmacies) and medical institutions (hospitals, clinics, individual doctor's offices etc).

In 2006 Sopharma Trading ranked second on the domestic market. Its market share stood at 15.7% in 2006 Q4, of which 28.1% on the hospital segment and 13.4% on the segment of pharmacies.

The company expects its total market share to grow to 27.9% by the end of 2007, and budget will reach 25.6 mln leva (13.089 mln euros).

Sopharma controls 99.62% of the capital.