Bulgaria Govt Rapped for Failed Privatization Attempts - Survey

The building of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in Sofia. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria's government is most heavily criticized for its failure to rake in revenues into the budget by privatization, shows a survey, conducted among analysts, employers and trade unionists.

According to the experts the failed privatizations prove that the plan of the government was chaotic and controversial, says the poll, conducted by the Institute for Market Economy.

The privatization tender, through which Bulgaria sought to boost public revenues by some BGN 80 M, managed to sell state stakes in only eight companies on Sofia stock exchange at the end of last year.

This was the first attempt at privatization for the center-right government of Boyko Borisov since the beginning of its term last summer.

The package included twenty nine state companies, the most attractive of them being Montazhi Sofia, which deals with technological equipment, steel constructions, electric installations, industrial pipelines, reservoirs.

The state also failed to attract buyers for some of the other companies considered to be among the most attractive, including Trade Tranzit Zone -Varna and a 49% stake in Duty Free Zone-Plovdiv.

In 2011 Bulgaria's government is expected to finally go ahead with the planned sale of tobacco company Bulgartabac Holding AD, Sopot-based Vazovski Mashinostroitelni Zavodi or VMZ, the country's biggest military plant, and minority stakes in E.ON-operated electricity distributor. This step is a must-do task in 2011 due to the sorry performance of the state-owned companies.

In 2011 Bulgaria's government should finally make its mind about how to restructure the energy holding, which groups the country's top energy assets.

Reports say the holding will come to include only the thermal and nuclear power plants, together with the National Electricity Company NEK, after which a minority stake will be listed on the stock exchange.

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