Bulgaria's Privatization Agency has formally transferred 79.83 per cent of cigarette maker Bulgartabac to Russian state-owned bank VTB for the price of EUR 100.1 million, reports news agency Novinite.

The new owner of Bulgartabac is BT Invest, a firm registered in Austria owned by VTB, which now has 5 881 380 shares of Bulgartabac, the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Agency announced.
The transfer completes a privatization deal that has been controversial because it is believed that the Russian state bank acts as an intermediary and that the "real" Bulgartabac buyers remain unknown. The first meeting of the new board of directors of Bulgartabac will be convened on 1 November.
The deal was finalized after the buyer paid the remainder of the selling price, after having paid 20 per cent of the EUR 100.1 million selling price on the day of the signing of the purchase papers.
The Privatization Agency said that the money the state receives from the sale of Bulgartabac will be directed into the state budget, and will then be fully transferred into the so called Silver Fund, a state retirement fund set up in 2008 in order to cover future pension system deficits caused by Bulgaria's aging population. (ci)