site.btaCourt Halts Registration of Kintex Management Changes

Sofia City Court has halted the registration of the Board of Directors of state-owned military equipment supplier Kintex EAD, Kintex said in a press release here on Thursday.

According to the court’s decision, Kintex’s production has been suspended until the case, which has been instituted at the request of Executive Director Alexander Mihailov, is closed.

The replacement of the Kintex Board of Directors was ordered Monday by Economy and Industry Minister Korneliya Ninova. The move came after a 2021 audit of the company by the Ministry Inspectorate found a number of irregularities and a manifest conflict of interest involving Mihailov.

The company management argued that neither documents had been required from it nor were there on-site inspections. It also said that the Economy Ministry has no right to audit the company and only its principal, the State Consolidation Company, can do that.

Following public demands that the audit report be made public, Ninova told media that she had dismissed Mihailov because he worked in a private arms company while heading the Kintex Board. Kintex denied that and said it can be checked in the registers of the National Revenue Agency and the Registry Agency.

Kintex also said that it has no legitimate management due to Ninova’s decision to dismiss the Executive Director. It complained that it has been offered a deal worth over EUR 40 million but cannot sign it as no Kintex personnel is authorized to represent the company. The actions of the Economy Ministry put to question this deal and threatens state interest, the company said.

Mihailov said that he would have resigned had he been asked to do so. “I still do not understand why the Ministry launched such an attack to discredit me professionally”, he said, adding that he will keep fighting "any insinuations and outright falsehoods” against him.