Austrian utility
EVN signed
on Monday a deal with Bulgaria's state power utility
NEK to take a majority stake in a 500-million-euro ($648.8 million)
Bulgarian hydropower project.
NEK will hold the remaining 30 percent in the joint venture that plans
to revive a long delayed project and build three hydropower stations and
renovate existing dams on the Gorna Arda river near the border with Turkey.
"We hope to have an updated feasibility study by the end of the year
that will define the amount of the investment and launch the construction in
2011," an EVN spokesman told Reuters after the chief executives of the two
companies signed the deal.
The spokesman said the feasibility study will define the amount
of
EVN 's
investment for the project that Bulgarian government estimates to cost half a
billion euros.
The Austrian utility will get the stake after a capital increase of the
joint venture company, in which EVN will put 1.39 million euros.
The Gorna Arda project, with an expected capacity of 175 megawatts was
part of an energy deal between Bulgaria and Turkey, signed in 1998. It was
initially to be built by Turkish CCG, part of the Ceylan
conglomerate.
NEK had 70 percent in the joint venture.
In May,
EVN , which also controls power distribution in southeastern Bulgaria,
bought the 30.1 percent stake of Turkish CCG.
Cash-strapped Bulgaria has been looking for foreign investors to back
its energy projects that will help it meet European Union targets to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and create new jobs. Source: Reuters