A 95.2% stake in Bulgarian paper and cardboard manufacturer Trakia Papir, in Pazardzhik, southern Bulgaria, was sold in two equal-size batches of shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on May 15, 2003. The shares were bought for a total of 308,000 Bulgarian levs ($181,000/158,000 euro), or 0.1 levs ($0.059/0.051 euro) per share. The two buyers of the batches were not named, but were said to be different from private Bulgarian company Gehard, in Plovdiv, southern Bulgaria, which owned the paper manufacturer so far. The names of the buyers will be announced within a week by the stock exchange and the Central Depositary. Trakia Papir posted a 393,000 levs ($230,000/202,000 euro) net profit for the first quarter of 2003. The company's profit for the whole 2002 stood at 837,000 levs ($491,000/430,000 euro). The sales for the first quarter stood at 9.8 mln levs ($5.7 mln/5.0 mln euro), up 30 pct year-on-year. The company's sales for 2002 reached 37.6 mln levs ($22 mln/19.3 mln euro), up from 33.2 mln levs ($19.4 mln/17 mln euro) for 2001. Some 4.0 pct of the company's 2002 sales were generated from exports. Trakia Papir holds a 70 pct share of the corrugated cardboard market in Bulgaria and a 30 pct share of the market for packages. A total of 50,000 tonnes of corrugated paper were produced by the company in 2002. Trakia Papir was privatised in 1998 and a total of $7.6 mln (6.7 mln euro) have been invested since then. A new $5.1 mln (4.5 mln euro) corrugated cardboard line was installed in January, which doubled the company's production capacity.