GALABOVO
Allianz Banks has opened a new office in Galabovo. The office will have four staff and will offer both bank and insurance products and services, Pari Daily reports.

LUKOVIT
United Bulgarian Bank has opened an office in Lukovit in northern Bulgaria.

PLEVEN
ProCredit Bank opened a second office in Pleven, northern Bulgaria, on March 12. The bank said that it planned to extend the working hours of all its offices in the country.

SOFIA
Municipal Bank, 67 per cent-owned by Sofia municipality, will pay the city a dividend of just more than a million leva for 2006, Focus news agency reported. The bank made a profit of 3.7 million leva last year but two million leva will be transferred to reserves for an upcoming capital increase. The municipality received a dividend of 2.5 million leva from the bank for 2005. The management of the bank has proposed a capital increase through the issue of a 10 million euro bond.

ABROAD
It is much more advantageous for Bulgarian companies to take credit from abroad, Bulgarian-language financial daily Pari said on March 21. The newspaper said that this was true for all possible forms of credit, including bank and corporate loans, internal financing and financing from foreign partners, because interest rates there were much lower than in Bulgaria. The difference is between 2.5 and five per cent, Rozova Dolina winery supervisory board chairperson Branimir Botev told Pari in an interview.
Western European banks were much more flexible than their Bulgarian peers in terms of grace periods, interest rates and collateral redeeming options. Western banks do much more than just giving loans and collecting receivables, Botev said.

FOREIGN CAPITAL
Three months after Bulgaria joined the European Union, capital costs in the country are as much as 20 per cent higher than in other EU members, Pari reported on March 21. This was stimulating Bulgarian companies to seek funding on foreign capital markets.
The newspaper quoted consultant Ventsislav Dimitrov as saying that the high cost of loans in Bulgaria was unjustified. Loans in the US and Europe are extended for 30-year periods at an annual interest rate of two to three per cent, while rates in Bulgaria were two to three times higher, Dimitrov said.

FIB FOR EXCHANGE
Bulgaria’s First Investment Bank (FIBank) said that it would list 9.09 per cent of its capital or 10 million shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the English-language online edition of Dnevnik reported. Bank shareholders have approved a capital increase from 100 million to 110 million through the initial public offering of 10 million shares with a nominal value of one lev. The issue price of the shares is yet to be determined.