Slovenia’s Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE) made the highest bid of EUR85.1 million to buy a 400-megawatt thermal power plant in the Danube River city of Rousse, Bulgaria’s privatization agency said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
It is the Balkan country’s second try to sell the Rousse plant, part of a larger strategy to put state utilities in private hands, to boost public services and liberalize the country’s energy market ahead of EU entry next year.
HSE outbid French company Dalkia International, a unit of Veolia Environment, which offered EUR51 million for 100% of the Rousse plant, and Germany’s E.ON which bid EUR29.1 million.
A fouth short-listed company, Czech firm CEZ, did not bid.
“We will name a winner of the tender next week and we will try to limit the negotiations to a month, “ said Todor Nikolov, executive director of Bulgaria’s Privatization Agency.
‘We hope to sign a deal by the end of this year of early next year,” Nikolov said price was the main criterion for the deal and the agency was happy with the bids.
Russia’s Unified Energy System won a first sale tender for Rousse last year with a bid of EUR178 million, but it later withdrew from the negotiations and analyst said the company had overbid.
Sofia is also trying to sell a 630-megawatt coal-fired plant at Bobov Dol to Greece’s Public Power Corp, but the deal has been fraught with political opposition and legal challenges. The deadline for finalizing that sale expires on December 11.
(Reuters, 19/11/2006)