site.btaPension Contributions of 100,000 Bulgarians Flow into Kovachki’s Coal Companies, Greenpeace Reports

The Bulgarian branch of environmental watchdog Greenpeace says on its website that the “Coal Empire” of energy mogul Hristo Kovachki is growing and continues to pollute the environment using the pension insurance contributions of 100,000 Bulgarians. According to a reaction from the Financial Supervision Commission, the funds managed by Kovachki’s Pension Insurance Company “Toplina” (PIC Toplina) do include some investments referenced by Greenpeace Bulgaria, but they are not related parties under the law. In a separate reaction, PIC Toplina said the statements made in the analysis published by Greenpeace are untrue, and Toplina’s clients need not fear for their money.

The critical analysis was commissioned by Greenpeace Bulgaria and published on its website on July 17 under the headline “The ‘Kovachki’ Heatwave”. It says that around BGN 5 million from the pension contributions of more than 100,000 Bulgarians are funnelled each month into companies that are part of Kovachki’s “Coal Empire”.

According to the report, PIC Toplina invests pension contributions in shares and bonds of companies linked to Kovachki’s coal operations. By the end of 2024, direct investments in such firms reached BGN 75 million, with indirect investments estimated between BGN 150 and 200 million. At least several of these coal-fired power plants operate at a chronic loss, Greenpeace Bulgaria claims, labelling them “zombie plants”.

Desislava Mikova, Climate and Energy campaign coordinator at Greenpeace Bulgaria, commented: “Against the backdrop of increasingly intense heatwaves, devastating fires and droughts, investing in coal – the biggest driver of the climate crisis – fuels further disasters and harm to both nature and human health. Investing in companies from Kovachki’s coal empire via the pension fund Toplina is a double heatwave: a threat to quality of life, and a risk to workers’ hard-earned pension savings. Pension funds should protect the future of their contributors, not gamble it away.”

On Friday, July 18, the Financial Supervision Commission published a statement on its website in response to the Greenpeace report. The regulator noted: “A general inspection is currently being carried out on PIC Toplina AD and the supplementary pension funds it manages, to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This is a scheduled review covering the company’s entire operations. The portfolios of the funds managed by Toplina, which are publicly available on the company’s website, do include some investments referenced in the media, but they are not related parties under the law. Moreover, their absolute value is decreasing, and they are significantly smaller than investments in government securities, for example.”

The Commission strongly rejected claims that contributors’ money is “as good as lost”, adding: “Pension funds are completely legally and financially separate from the pension companies managing them. This means that even if a pension company were to experience financial trouble or cease to exist – which has never happened in Bulgaria – the funds of insured individuals would not be at risk. Fund assets are held by custodian banks licensed by the Bulgarian National Bank, which monitor every transaction and investment, and confirm the accuracy of valuations and the net asset value.”

In a press release received at BTA, Toplina stated: “PIC Toplina is financially stable. There is no risk to our clients’ funds, and they can rest assured. The insinuations being made are untrue and are aimed at damaging the company’s reputation and undermining public trust in supplementary pension insurance as a whole. The company invests pension fund assets in full compliance with Bulgarian legislation, respecting regulatory limits and risk diversification. The funds managed by Toplina AD invest in the Bulgarian economy and in companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.”