Hellenic Sugar Industry, a Greek sugar producer, said it will begin negotiations with Cal West Ethanol about converting two sugar refineries into plants for bioethanol, an alternative fuel for cars. Hellenic Sugar canceled a tender for a strategic investor to help in the conversion “because of changing market conditions,” the Thessaloniki-based company said in a bourse filing yesterday. Instead, it will hold direct negotiations with interested investors, starting with a joint venture of Cal West Investment Corp and Renew Energy, it said. The company said in April that Motor Oil Hellas SA, Greece’s second-biggest refiner, and Cal West Ethanol made bids for the conversion of its Larissa and Xanthi refineries. The company intends to reduce sugar output as part of the European Union’s moves to cut the region’s production and boost alternative fuels for cars. (Bloomberg)

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Greek telecoms equipment maker Intracom Telecom has signed a 150-million-euro ($236.7 million) bond loan agreement to refinance debt and fund new projects and expansion to new markets, its parent company said yesterday. Russian high-tech company Sitronics, which controls 51 percent of Intracom Telecom, said in a statement the loan was arranged jointly by Alpha Bank, HSBC, Geniki Bank, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank. Intracom Holdings owns the remaining 49 percent in Intracom Telecom. Sitronics is part of Russian services conglomerate Sistema.

Turkey’s government submitted a bill yesterday to parliament to move key economic institutions, including the central bank, to Istanbul from the capital Ankara within two years. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is pressing ahead to bolster Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, as an international financial hub despite opposition from much of the capital’s elite, including opposition parties, the central bank governor and business groups. The government also plans to relocate state-run bank Vakifbank, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, and the Capital Markets Board. (Reuters)

The Bulgarian government has no plans to cut value-added tax or excise duties to ease rising prices that have pushed up inflation, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski said yesterday. The pain of soaring oil prices provoked protests in the Balkan country, where truckers rallied last month to press for excise duty rebates and government help. Some farm producers have demanded lower VAT on food to slow accelerating inflation which shot up to 15 percent year-on-year in May, one of the highest levels in the European Union. (Reuters)

Bulgaria has received $360 million as a final settlement of the $1.86 billion Iraq owed it, the Finance Ministry said yesterday. “Bulgaria is the first country that has achieved a debt arrangement through a one-off payment in cash,” the ministry said in a statement. Under the deal agreed last November, the Balkan country recovered about 20 percent of the debt owed by Iraq and forgave the rest, in line with the arrangement of the Paris Club of rich creditor states to write off 80 percent of debt Iraq owed its members. (Reuters)