January 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's National Electricity Company plans to start discussions on January 14 with 12 banks which have shown interest to provide it with a loan of 650 million euro ($699 million), the country's energy minister said, as quoted by local media.
In August, US companies AES and ContourGlobal signed agreements with the National Electricity Company, NEK, a unit of BEH, on a decrease in the prices at which it buys electricity produced by the two companies' thermal power plants. For its part, NEK pledged to pay back its overdue liabilities to the two plants.
Also in August, energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that NEK owes the two plants around 900 million levs ($494 million/459.6 million euro) in total.
In November, BEH sent to 25 international banks letters inviting them to provide it with a 650 million euro loan.
($=0.9300 euro)