SOFIA (Bulgaria), August 9 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria’s government said on Wednesday it has given its approval to Bulgarian Energy Holding, which pools all state-owned energy assets, to sell 100% of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE).
The sale will be carried out through direct negotiations based on an estimate provided by a licensed valuator, the government said in a statement.
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Following BEH’s request for an opinion, the European Commission has said the BSE is a more appropriate buyer of IBEX than the Ministry of Finance, the statement reads.
The transfer of ownership of IBEX was requested by the European Commission in December 2015 to prevent abuse of dominant position. BEH committed to offer certain volumes of electricity on an independently-operated day-ahead market on a newly-created power exchange and transfer control of the 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 Bulgaria’s Ministry of Finance.
The deadline was subsequently extended to October 2017, according to the government’s statement.