July 8 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Sofia municipality said on Friday it decided to launch a tender to select an international investor in public heating utility company Toplofikacia Sofia.
Within two months Toplofikatsia Sofia must prepare the documentation for the tender, which will call for an international investor with experience in the construction and management of energy facilities to build additional power generation units, the municipal council said in a statement. The company will also seek consulting and administrative-technical services from an external investor.
The municipal council plans to retain full ownership of the steam heating utility company, without issuing guarantees and providing municipal financing for the construction of new energy facilities.
Sofia municipality also adopted the debt-laden central heating company's business plan for 2022, which targets a 49% reduction of operating losses compared to 2021.
In 2020, Toplofikacia Sofia narrowed its loss to some 67.2 million levs ($34.8 million/34.4 million euro) from 82.5 million levs in 2019, its most recent annual report shows. As at end-2020, the company had an accumulated loss of 738.9 million levs.
This year will be the first in which Toplofikacia Sofia's annual revenue from electricity sales is expected to exceed the revenue from sales of heating energy with 52% of total revenue, Sofia municipality said.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)