Investment bank Morgan Stanley has acquired 8.1% of the state controlled tobacco holding Bulgartabac and 5.03% of Bulgartabac’s largest cigarette factory in Blagoevgrad last week, according to the report of the central register of the local stock exchange. Morgan Stanley has purchased the stakes held by UBS in block deals priced at BGN 16.8mn (EUR 8.59mn) for Bulgartabac and BGN 11mn for the cigarette factory. Bulgartabac has posted a net consolidated loss of BGN 14.4mn (EUR 7.36mn) in Q1 as compared to a BGN 500,000 net loss a year earlier. The consolidated sales of the tobacco holding have dropped by 46.7% y/y to BGN 40.5mn. The state controls 80% of Bulgartabac, which comprises 14 subsidiaries in the country and several idle units abroad. Last week, the management of Bulgartabac announced that the two idle cigarette factories in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora will be sold through auctions on the local bourse in the first half of July. The remaining two operating factories in Blagoevgrad and Sofia will be privatised under a new strategy of the holding.