With the exception of the Plovdiv, Sofia and Blagoevgrad tobacco companies and the processing company in the village of Yasen, near Pleven, all remaining enterprises part of Bulgartabac Holding should be privatised by the end of July 2006. The public companies within the holding will be sold on the stock exchange, while the sale of the rest of the companies will be carried out through tenders.

The term for the start of the privatisation procedure coincides with the termination of the measures against fixed cigarette prices, in order for dumping cigarette imports to be avoided.

The sale of the non-public companies will be carried out by Bulgartabac's supervisory board. In the last week of March Bulgartabac opened a procedure for the selection of a consultant for the sale of its companies.

Bulgartabac tobacco holding has signed a deal for export of cigarettes to Italy . The first order covers some 6,000 tonnes of the Victory Exclusive brand produced by Blagoevgrad BT. This is the first contract of Bulgartabac for exports to the EU market and it may play a key role in revamping the weak sales of the holding in the past several years.