SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 24 (SeeNews) – Three companies accounted for a combined 437 million euro ($620 million) or 43% of Bulgaria's foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows through April, the head of the country's investment agency said on Friday.
"Several big companies are responsible for both investments in and out of the country worth 300-400 million euro in each direction," Borislav Stefanov, executive director of the Invest Bulgaria Agency, told SeeNews in an interview, giving no names.
One of the large firms which moved investments out of Bulgaria is a subcontractor in one of the big local infrastructure projects, Stefanov added. He explained the outflow with the firm paying back capital in 2011 to the parent company, based in the Netherlands, which was registered as an FDI outflow.
"The second company is a German investor that paid off a significant intra-company loan [...] but it is still one of the big investors in Bulgaria," Stefanov said.
The third example is a leasing firm which also had to pay back funds to its parent company.
FDI in Bulgaria decreased by 62.5 million euro through April, compared to an increase of 378.9 million euro a year earlier, according to official figures from the central bank.
Over the same period, there were nearly 850 companies which invested in or moved investments out of the country, including 550 that contributed to Bulgaria's FDI inflow.
($=0.7046 euro)