SOFIA (Bulgaria), November 16 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition said local logistics company SIGDA has filed for approval to acquire Varna thermal power plant (TPP).
Last month, Czech power utility CEZ Group said it has agreed to sell its Varna TPP to SIGDA. The final purchase price will be determined as of closing of the transaction based on the level of working capital, CEZ said at the time.
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The deal is not expected to affect competition on the Bulgarian market, according to a notice posted on the website of the competition regulator on Wednesday.
TPP Varna, with an installed capacity of 1,260 MW, has been shut down since January 2015 due to non-compliance with environmental limits set in its permit.
Last month, Bulgaria's energy regulator granted permission for decommissioning of three of Varna TPP's six units. The decommissioning of the three units will cost 8.7 million euro ($10.2 million), while the proceeds from their sale for scrap metal will amount to 7.1 million euro.
In September, Czech media reported the supervisory board of the CEZ Group has issued a preliminary approval to sell the group's Varna TPP for 50 million euro to an unnamed buyer, opening the way for the negotiations to proceed.
“The original plan was to sell all assets together, but that has changed because the bid for Varna was so attractive that most probably it will be sold separately," Hospodarske Noviny news daily quoted Vaclav Paces, chairman of CEZ’s supervisory board, as saying at the time.
In August, CEZ Group said it had received binding bids for its assets in Bulgaria from several candidates. It did not name the candidates.
The assets of CEZ Group in Bulgaria comprise CEZ Distribution Bulgaria, the public supplier of electricity and a licensed trader CEZ Electro Bulgaria, licensed electricity trader CEZ Trade Bulgaria and Varna thermal power plant. The operations of those companies are managed and coordinated by CEZ Bulgaria.
($ = 0.8494 euro)