November 7 (SeeNews) - The Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) said its net profit rose to 3.2 million levs ($1.9 million/1.6 million euro) in the first nine months of the year from 1.2 million levs in the same period of last year, following a sharp rise in revenue.
The company's operating revenue increased to 5.0 million levs in January-September from 2.6 million levs in the like peirod of 2017, IBEX said in an interim financial statement.
Expenses for hired services rose to 646,000 levs in the review period from 582,000 levs the year before, while employee costs grew to 589,000 levs from 446,000 levs.
In February, the state-owned Bulgarian Stock Exchange completed the acquisition of IBEX from the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) for 5.2 million levs.
The transfer of ownership of IBEX was requested by the European Commission in December 2015 to prevent abuse of dominant position. BEH, which pools state-owned energy assets, committed to offer certain volumes of electricity on an independently-operated day-ahead market on a newly-created power exchange and transfer ownership of the new power exchange to the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance.
Under the Commission’s decision, dated December 12, 2015, BEH was given six months from the date of formal notification of the decision to transfer the ownership of IBEX’s capital to the Ministry of Finance.
Following BEH’s request for opinion, the European Commission said that the BSE is a more appropriate buyer of IBEX than the finance ministry and the deadline for transferring ownership was extended to October 2017.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)