Bulgaria Govt Inspects Ownership of Plovdiv International Fair

Georgi Gergov, executive director of the Plovdiv International Fair (left). Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy has formed a working group to inspect how businessman Georgi Gergov gained control of the Plovdiv International Fair.

On Wednesday, Bulgaria's Economy Minister, Traicho Traikov, said that this was "one of the weirdest deals in the recent years". In his words, the Plovdiv International Fair company even refuses to give the government information because the state is not a majority owner.

Even though the Plovdiv International Fair is in the companies that are banned from being privatized, the tourism businessman Georgi Gergov, who is close to the former governing Bulgarian Socialist Party, controls almost 51% of it through several connected firms, according to a report of mediapool.bg.

Gergov is currently the executive director of the Plovdiv International Fair company. The Ministry's working group is headed by Deputy Minister Evgeni Angelov.

Gergov has reacted by saying that if the state wanted to increase its share of the Plovdiv International Fair, it should buy out shares from the other owners instead of carrying out inspections. He has expressed confidence in the legality of the situation, adding that the public-private partnership for the Plovdiv International Fair had been inspected by the Interior Ministry, the National Security Agency, and the prosecutor's office.

Gergov has also denied Minister Traikov's claim that the state was refused information about the ownership of the company.

The Plovdiv International Fair is in charge of Bulgaria's largest commercial annual exhibition, which bears the same name.

 

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