French retail chain Carrefour will open a store in Mall Pleven, developer Aladin Investment said on May 27, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. The hypermarket chain would rent 2 400 sq m on the shopping centre's ground floor, Aladin Harfan, owner of Aladin Investment, was quoted as saying.

Mall Pleven, a 80 million leva development, is still under construction but is expected to be completed by the end of the year. "Construction is progressing according to schedule," Harfan was quoted as saying.

The shopping centre is expected to open in early 2010 and has generated "heightened interest" from retailers, according to Colliers International, contracted to rent out the 100 stores that will spread over 17 500 sq m in the finished mall.

Currently, there are eight Carrefour projects under construction nationwide. The first hypermarket of the French group opened for business at the end of March 2009 in Bourgas, Bulgaria's second largest Black Sea city.

The first Carrefour hypermarket in Sofia is expected to open in February 2010 on the Tsarigradsko Chaussee Boulevard.

Войната на уеб браузърите отново промени своя облик след пускането на новата версия на Mozilla Firefox, който е вторият по пазарен дял браузър в света, но заема първото място в сърцата на много от компютърните потребители.

Новата версия на Firefox е третото обновление на популярен браузър за тази година, след новите версии на Internet Explorer на Microsoft и Safari на Apple.

За разлика от Firefox обаче, те са вградени в двете основни операционни системи Windows и Mac, което им дава голямо предимство.

От друга страна, Mozilla трябва да убеди потребителите да свалят Firefox, който се предлага в две идентични версии за двете компютърни платформи.

Въпреки това, Firefox вече има около 23% пазарен дял, което го нарежда на втора място след IE, който държи между 60% и 70%.

Междувременно Google, който е бивш поддръжник на Firefox, се присъедини към битката със своя браузър Chrome, който засега работи само под Windows.

Google не само възнамерява да направи версия за Mac скоро, но и да разработи собствена операционна система през следващата година.

На фона на изострената конкуренция обаче, последната версия на Firefox изостава по отношение на новите подобрения в сравнение с предишните версии.

Поради това продуктът на Mozilla вече не се разграничава така ясно и не превъзхожда другите добри браузъри по две причини.

Bulgaria remains an attractive real estate market for the British, writes the authoritative “Indipendant” newspaper. Although the country recently lost its popularity, the low cost of living means that tourism is expected to pick up.

the cheapest life there may lead to peak in tourism, and hence to a new boom in the property market, says the publication.

The prices are still reasonable in the ski resorts and on the Black Sea Coast can be found apartments for 30 000 pounds, which is sufficiently attractive for the buyers, says "Indipendant”.

The monetary value of the properties registered a slump down all over Europe, but the strong euro deviate the British attention from destinations such as Spain and France for example. New one-bedroom apartment in the French Alps is at least 180 thousand pounds, while in Bulgaria it can be found for 35.5 thousand pounds. Homes on the Black Sea have similar prices, says “Indipendant”.

The climate for investment in the Bulgarian real estate market would remain stable and attractive over the medium term, said Vesselin Krustev – business properties manager. Regardless of the mortgage and financial strangulation experienced by North America and Western Europe, where on average real estate property valuations have plummetted by 16%, the situation in Bulgaria would remain as "healthy as ever".

Local markets may experience smaller growth or stabilisation of the pricing in certain sectors, but this would actually be beneficial to the consumers and it would be healthier for the industry. The value of Bulgarian real estate would remain cheaper than in Western Europe and therefore will always be a magnet for foreign investment as well as of high local interest, he said.

The global crises will have a slight chilling effect on the industry, preventing prices from spiralling upwards and the Bulgarian real estate sector would maintain a healthy annual growth of 10 to 15 per cent, he said.

Bulgaria has kept a leading position in receiving investment in the industry, and whereas previously vacational real estate was purchased with an investment purpose, offering returns of between 30 and 50 per cent, the trend had changed and vacational real estate was purchased for operational purpose and to be used in the long run. Speculative buyers have been replaced by permanent buyers and this has modified the market, bringing smaller returns and stabilising property value.

For residential real estate and business real estate, Bulgaria and Romania remained Europe's best destinations for investment, Krustev said. Romania had an advantage in pricing in regard to sites for industrial development, but Bulgaria enjoyed superior geographical location. Additionally, Bulgaria had lower taxes, the lowest in the European Union, which made is irresistable for foreign investment.

Finally, there was still a lot of area for development around Sofia for trade and large offices, which until now hasn't been utilised due to speculation and artificially inflated prices, which until now have kept the investors away. However, with the cooling of prices which will inevitably come to Bulgaria, those parcels of land will be open for industrial and business development.