- Bulgaria: a consortium bringing together the Italian bank UNICREIDTO and German insurer ALLIANZ has been selected for the privatisation of 67% of the capital of Bulgaria's largest commercial bank BULBANK (net profit of 53.69 million euro in 1999), the Minister of the Economy Petar Jotev announced. The offer of the Italian-German consortium was preferred to that of the Greek-French consortium KANOVAS/CREDIT AGRICOLE INDOSUEZ and that of Belgium's KBC. The UNICREDITO/ALLIANZ grouping will have exclusive rights to negotiate until 16 June. If no agreement is reached, Bulgaria reserves the right to negotiate with other candidates. See EI of 27 April.