Ownership Structure and Corporate Control in Bulgaria

The paper presents the actual ownership structure of public companies in Bulgaria on the basis of a survey of 104 companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. It also discusses the problems of disclosure of ownership information, focussing on the transposition of the EC Large Holdings Directives. The paper finds out an inconsistent enforcement of the disclosure procedures and very concentrated ownership; for more than half of the companies the largest shareholders stakes’ exceed more than 50%. That provides incentives and opportunities for violation of the rights of minority shareholders, though this is far not the only reason.