October 27, 2006

The leading fuel distributor in Bulgaria Petrol AD successfully closed euro 100 million 8.375 per cent. Guaranteed Notes transaction

After Mobiltel AD and Kremikovtsi AD, Petrol AD is the third big Bulgarian non-financial company that has issued debt at the international market. The transaction team includes the London offices of Clifford Chance and Linklaters, ING London as lead manager of the issue and the Bank of New York as a trustee and principal paying and transfer agent.

The Notes have been purchased mostly by investors from UK, Germany, Asia and Switzerland (hedge funds, management companies and others). The issue has been admitted to the UK Listing Authority Official List and application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Notes to be admitted to trading. The Notes has been rated B- by Fitch, B- by S&P and B3 by Moody’s.

Petrol AD is the leading fuel distributor in Bulgaria operating in both retail and wholesale market segments. Petrol AD owns a country-wide network of 460 petrol stations and according to company estimates for 2005 has 19% market share in retail distribution and 23% market share in wholesale distribution. Petrol AD owns and operates 15 large storage depots spread across the country, accounting for 75% of Bulgaria’s total storage capacity. The company is listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of EUR 211m.

As of end of December 2005 Petrol AD has sales of EUR 737m, EBITDA of EUR 25m, indebtedness of EUR 82m and total assets of EUR 258m. For the first half of 2006 Petrol Ad has announced consolidated profit of EUR 6m, which is nearly 3 times higher compared with the same period in the preceding year.