site.btaPlovdiv to Vote Against Transfer of International Fair Shares from Varna Municipality to Puldin Tourinvest

At the general meeting of the joint stock company Puldin Tourinvest AD, which controls the International Fair - Plovdiv, the Plovdiv Municipality will vote against the acceptance of Varna's shares in the Fair. This was announced at a briefing on Monday by Plovdiv Mayor Zdravko Dimitrov and GERB coordinator for Plovdiv-city Ivan Totev. Dimitrov added that the Municipal Council has obliged him as mayor to appeal against all decisions of the general assembly related to the capital increase and the statutes, and he will comply with this.

Earlier in the day, for the second time, councillors called a special session on the case, but it was not held due to lack of quorum. The session was to amend a resolution passed by councillors on December 19, authorising the municipal representative to vote in favour. If the Varna municipality's shares are taken over, businessman Georgi Gergov's stake in the exhibition centre is expected to rise to 79%, while Plovdiv municipality is expected to melt its 25% stake to 20%.

The municipality's representative will vote against at the general meeting and inform shareholders that the decisions will be appealed, Totev said, adding that he is convinced that the decision will be suspended. "This session is pointless and cannot produce anything, so we are not participating in this political farce," Totev noted. 

At the end of November the councillors refused the transfer, but Georgi Gergov tried to register it in the Commercial Register anyway. The Plovdiv Municipality filed a lawsuit in the Plovdiv District Court, blocking the registration, and the Court of Appeal upheld the suspension of the registry proceedings. This was followed by an offer from the businessman to transfer to the Plovdiv Municipality two percent of the shares and six acres of the International Fair - Plovdiv for the construction of an opera house, if the administration approved the transfer of the shares of Varna Municipality to Puldin Tourinvest AD. Thus, at the December 19 session, councillors decided to vote in favour of all items on the general assembly agenda.

On January 8, dozens of Plovdiv residents gathered at a protest in front of the municipality demanding that control over the Fair should not be given to businessman Georgi Gergov.