SOFIA (Bulgaria), November 18 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian company Kid 2228 has received regulatory approval to acquire, by the end of the year, the assets of hydropower plant (HPP) Zhrebchevo for 7.5 million euro ($9.4 million) with a mortgage on the assets, the energy regulator said.
The energy regulator has allowed the sale of the pledged property of the HPP only in its entirety and only after the vendor has received regulatory permission, the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC) said in a statement published on its website.
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The regulator has also granted Kid 2228 a 15-year permit for electricity production at the 15.43 megawatt (MW) HPP. The licence will take effect after Kid 2228 takes control of HPP Zhrebchevo.
The amount of the deal was given net of value-added tax (VAT).
According to SEWRC, Kid 2228 will finance the acquisition deal with a 8.8 million euro credit drawn from UniCredit Bulbank, with also acts as a pledgee on the assets of the HPP.
In its business plan for the 2014-2019 period, which Kid 2228 has submitted with the regulator, it projects that the amount of electricity the HPP will produce will be 15,812 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually, which is a decrease of 30% from the HPP's average output in the past 10 years.
The company has also stated it intends to invest more than 3.6 million levs in the Zhrebchevo plant with proceeds from the sale of electricity generated by the HPP.
Zhrebchevo, which started operations in 1967, is operated by New-Co Zagora, a unit of Bulgaria's biggest fuel retailer Petrol Holding.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)