Govt Inches towards Sale of CEZ Bulgaria Minority Stake

Bulgaria's Privatization Agency will table to the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) the paperwork for the sale of the government's 33% minority stake in the CEZ Bulgaria power utility within 1-2 weeks.

This has been made clear by Emil Karanikolov, head of the Bulgarian Privatization and Post-Privatization Control Agency.

Bulgaria's government is expected to list its 33% minority stake in E.ON and CEZ power distributors in April and May respectively in a bid to enliven the local stock exchange and boost revenues.

Bulgaria's government has already sold its 33% minority stake in another one of the three regional power utilities in the country, EVN.

In 2004, the Balkan country sold 67% in its three power distributors to Germany's E.ON, Austria's EVN and Czech CEZ.

E.ON serves households in North-Eastern Bulgaria, including the Black Sea city of Varna. Czech power utility CEZ supplies power to over 2 million households and companies in western Bulgaria, while EVN serves the south-eastern parts of the country.

At the beginning of December German electric energy company E.ON struck a deal to sell its Bulgarian unit E.ON Bulgaria to private Czech company Energo Pro.