The shareholders of the local drugs producer Unipharm decided yesterday to operate a capital hike through a public offering expected to take place by the end of the year. The capital of the company stands at BGN 500,000 (EUR 255,646) at present.The management of the company said that it is planning to consolidate the business of Unipharm with the related company Sopharma, which accounts for 28% of the orders. Unipharm has raised its capacity of tablets production by 83% to 550mn after reconstruction of one of its facilities. Tablets production account for more than 80% of the total. Unipharm raised its sales by 4.5% to BGN 13.8mn last year. It holds a share of 1.5% of the local market, 70% of which is covered by imports. Another drugs maker Etropal, part of the local holding Eurohold, also plans to go public by the end of the year. A week ago, the company operated a capital hike from BGN 1.1mn to BGN 4mn and plans to raise its capital once again to BGN 5mn before launching shares on the bourse. Two months ago, Etropal placed a EUR 2mn Eurobond to finance its investment programme. It expects to double its sales to more than BGN 20mn this year.