February 5 (SeeNews) - The UK's Manchester Airports Group (MAG) on Tuesday reaffirmed its plans to submit an offer in the Bulgarian government's tender for awarding a 35-year concession contract to run Sofia Airport.
"We were ready to file out offer in Sofia today, but we support the new timeframe and we will work until the new deadline," Andrew Harrison, MAG's airport services CEO, said in a statement.
Bulgaria's transport ministry said last week that it has extended, for the fourth time, the deadline for submitting offers, to April 3.
The decision is based on requests by candidates and has been coordinated with the advisors on the procedure - the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the ministry said.
MAG has not asked for an extension of the deadline, the company noted.
The estimated value of the concession contract is 3.9 billion euro ($4.5 billion), the transport ministry said in August when the tender was launched.
Manchester Airports Group operates three airports in Great Britain - Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands. The combined annual passenger traffic of the three airports totals nearly 60 million.
($ = 0.8753 euro)