November 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Energy Minister Traycho Traykov said on Tuesday that state-owned energy group Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) will be restructured and may spin off a couple of its units, local daily Dnevnik reported.
Electricity system operator ESO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of power grid operator NEK, itself a unit of BEH, will become an independent company, Dnevnik (www.dnevnik.bg) quoted Traykov as telling the fourth annual meeting of Bulgarian business and government officials hosted by the local Capital weekly(www.capital.bg).
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BEH may also spin off Bulgartransgaz, its gas transmission system unit, Traykov was further quoted as saying.
The government official did not rule out the possibility that NEK may also be dropped from the BEH structure as the grid operator itself is a holding company.
The blueprint for the restructuring of BEH will be drafted by an advisory company, Traykov said.
BEH (www.bgenh.bg), set up in September 2008, incorporates the assets of Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant Kozloduy, gas monopoly Bulgargaz, Bulgartransgaz, telecommunications operator Bulgartel, NEK and ESO, coal-fired power plant Maritsa East 2 and the Maritsa East coal mines. Group assets exceed 10 billion levs ($7.5 billion/5.1 billion euro) with employee headcount at some 22,000.
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in August that BEH should be dismembered because the megastructure is redundant.
(1 euro=1.9558 Bulgarian levs)
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