Petrol Holding has lowered its stake in Petrol to 53.6%, after selling a total of 1.7 million shares, or 1.6% of Petrol's capital, on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Karoll reported.

In November, Naftex Petrol raised its stake in Petrol to above 30% following deals with large packages of shares in Bulgaria's biggest fuel retailer.

Bulgaria's biggest fuel retailer Petrol turned to 281 million leva net profit in the third quarter from a 4.8 million leva net loss in the respective period last year, mainly due to the sale of 75 gas stations to its rival Lukoil Bulgaria for a total of 463.5 million leva. Petrol's sales rose to 1.6 billion leva, up by 66% as compared to the respective period last year.

The company's costs grew to 91.8 million leva versus BGN 37.7 million in the period on negative revaluations of financial assets.

Fitch has placed Petrol's solvency and bond ratings for its 100 million euro notes due in 2011 on Rating Watch Negative.

In July, Fitch upgraded Petrol's Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-‘ with stable outlook from negative over solid gains from the sale of its gas stations to Lukoil.