Pursuant to the Bulgarian Accountancy Act (Закон за счетоводството) companies must publish in the Commercial Register and Register for Nonprofit Legal Entities ("Commercial Register") their annual financial statements by 30 June of the calendar year following the reported period. Companies which have not carried out any activity during the reported period are exempt from this obligation. Prerequisite for the exemption is that the company's lack of activity is expressly declared before the Commercial Register.

From 1 January 2020, the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition (the "CPC") has been applying new merger filing guidelines (the "Guidelines"). The former guidelines, applied for more than ten years, did not differentiate between transactions (simpler or more complex) irrespectively of their potential competition concerns. This unified approach was unnecessarily bureaucratic with regard to concentrations with insignificant market effect (i.e. insignificant combined shares of the parties), which required a detailed merger filing only because the parties' turnover reached the statutory thresholds. At the same time, the former guidelines did not seem extensive enough for more complicated transactions (with substantial market shares of the parties), and it was not unusual for the CPC to send to the parties several requests for additional information to assess and clear a concentration. Naturally, this approach led to delays both in simpler and more complex transactions.

Tokushev and Partners has advised DZI - General Insurance on its acquisition of Mall Varna for EUR 16 million from Hydrostroy.

Kinstellar has advised GTC on its lease of of 4,000 square meters in the Advance Business Center II, an office building in Sofia, Bulgaria, that is expected to open near the end of this year.

Noerr and Penkov, Markov & Partners have advised private equity firm Aurelius Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA on the acquisition of the Renewable Power Systems and Protection Relays businesses from NASDAQ-listed Woodward, Inc.

Managing Partner Diana Dimova reflects on Kinstellar Sofia’s fifth anniversary

CMS has advised Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems on the sale of its Bulgarian subsidiary Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Bulgaria AD to the IBG Group. EY Law reportedly advised the buyers.

Attorney-at-Law Nikolay Cvetanov has been named Managing Partner at Penkov, Markov & Partners in Bulgaria.

Kambourov & Partners has advised Spain's Bankia bank on a loan portfolio transfer in which part of the receivables was secured by collateral provided by Bulgarian companies.

Georgiev, Todorov & Co has successfully defended the interests of Multi-profile Hospital for Active Treatment Doverie against Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund in a dispute involving payment for medical care provided by the hospital to health-insured persons above the limits set by the NHIF.

DGKV has successfully defended the interests of Mayoral Moda Infantil S.A. and its Bulgarian subsidiary Mayoral Bulgaria EOOD before the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition in a case brought by their commercial partner, Comsed, involving allegations of superior bargaining position.

Tokushev & Partners has helped the Fund of Funds in Bulgaria make arrangements with two financial intermediaries to create several alternative investment funds for equity investments.

Why would anyone knowingly become a law firm marketing specialist – a role that is demanding, complicated, challenging, and stressful? To explore this mystery, we went to the source. Accordingly, this time around we asked the law firm marketing specialists of CEE to complete the following question: “I went into Law Firm Marketing/BD as a career because ____________.“

CMS has advised UniCredit Bulbank on the sale of a mixed non-performing loan portfolio, secured mostly by real estate assets, to a consortium of APS Holding and Balbec.

Boyanov & Co has advised Globalfoundries on its acquisition of the Process Design Kit‘s engineering team from Smartcom Bulgaria AD in Sofia. CMS Sofia advised the sellers.

Kambourov & Partners has advised Akropolis Real Estate BV on the sale of a 197,000 square meter residential development lot in Sofia to the Galaxy Investment Group.

Vassilev & Partners has helped Cyprus's JFD Group Limited register its branch in the Bulgarian Commercial Register and the Investment Intermediary Register kept by the Financial Supervision Commission.

In 2013, a wide range of changes were introduced in relation to the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. A staple for a wide range of financial products, LIBOR has been the dominant rate for syndicated loans, bonds, and derivatives entered into on the Bulgarian, CEE, and wider European markets. However, following a series of problems over the past decade, the need to move away from LIBOR has become apparent. As panel banks would not be required to submit their references by the end of 2021, the question has become what the alternatives to LIBOR are and how they can be implemented.