Bulgarian Fuel Retailer Petrol To Sell Mobile Phone Cards under Deal with Mobiltel

“The direct effect that this product will bring will not be so big, but we hope that indirect effect in the form of client loyalty and increased consumption of our main products and services, will be achieved,” Petrol's marketing and advertising director, Svetodar Yosifov, told a news conference without elaborating.

Yosifov declined to disclose the terms of the agreement with Mobiltel.

The cards will be sold at lower than the average prices and will target mainly low-income customers like students and pensioners, he added.

Petrol expects to sell some 50,000 cards by the end of the year and to reach a client base of some 200,000 people in the medium term, Yosifov told reporters.

Mobiltel, owned by Telekom Austria, is the country's first mobile operator. It had a market share of 50.5% at the end of June with a customer base of 5.154 million. Mobiltel competes with Globul, a unit of Greek wireless phone operator Cosmote, and the smaller Vivatel, owned by listed Bulgarian telecoms group BTC.

Petrol is majority-owned by Bulgaria's Petrol Holding group. Its main rivals are international majors such Russia's Lukoil, Royal Dutch/Shell and Austria's OMV.

Shares in Petrol traded 1.12% lower at 7.91 levs ($5.45/4.04 euro) on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange by 0855 GMT on Monday.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)