Bulgartabac Holding reported a profit of 1.862 million leva in January-September. The third quarter profit stood at 2.439 million leva, sources from the company said.

Bulgartabac Holding observes a strong tendency of growing sales revenue, from 4.164 million leva in the first quarter, to 5.867 million leva in Q2 and 11.979 million leva in Q3.

Payroll costs in the first nine months of the year decreased by 27.95 per cent (2.764 million leva) while expenditure for external services fell by 23.60 per cent (2.540 million leva).

The due diligence and information memorandum for Bulgartabac Holding's privatization will be ready at the start of November and the deal is sure to come through, Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov said recently.

The sale of Bulgartabac to a strategic or financial investor is high on Traikov's list of priorities.

The Supervisory Board of the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Agency approved in mid-September the agreement on assigning the preparation for the privatization of Bulgartabac Holding to Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

Without providing details, at the start of the summer Bulgartabac officials said that investors' interest towards the company came from many places. Bulgartabac Executive Director Ivan Bilarev said that a method for the sale of the holding, whether through competition, auction or otherwise, had not been discussed.

Source: BTA