Bulgaria's Maritsa East Coal Mines See 2009 Profit Above Plan, To Invest 49 Mln Euro in 2010 - CEO

The mining company plans to invest 96.4 million levs ($70.7 million/49 million euro) next year, Todorov said in an interview with local Pari (www.pari.bg) business daily.

The mines supply coal to the 900-megawatt (MW) Maritsa East 3 power plant, owned by Italy's Enel, and to state-owned power plant, Maritsa East 2, with capacity of over 1,500 MW.

"The year 2010 will be a year for major investments [...] it is not ruled iut that the investment may rise and exceed 100 million levs," Todorov said.

Maritsa East Mines plans to launch a 15.1 million euro project to improve the energy efficiency of its heavy mining equipment next year. The project is financed with a grant from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF), administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. KIDSF was established in 2001 to support projects for restructuring and upgrades in Bulgaria's energy sector, thus compensating the country for the decommissioning of four 440-MW reactors at its sole nuclear power plant Kozloduy.

The company has projected a profit of 1.2 million levs for the current year after erasing a mid-year loss of 23 million levs, Todorov said. He did not elaborate whether he meant gross or net profit.

"We'll exceed this figure and at the end of December we'll post results much better than plan," said Todorov, who became company CEO in July. The previous management of the coal mines had projected a loss of 48 million levs for this year.

Maritsa East Mines had a profit of 3.8 million levs for September, 16 million levs for October and 14.7 million levs for November. The company has reduced its debt to suppliers to 23 million levs at the moment from 43 million levs in the middle of the year, Todorov said.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)