French energy company Dalkia confirmed officially their interest in the privatisation of Toplofikatsia Sofia, the capital’s central heating utility, on September 20.

Dalkia is also interested in the proposed privatisation of the Plovdiv, Varna and Rousse. heating utilities. The French company is currently reviewing the condition of the utilities.

At a meeting with the press, Jean-Michel Mazalerat of Dalkia International management said his company was a long-term investor that was not after a quick return on the investment. He was positive that Dalkia could help the development of the heating utility network in Bulgaria.

Investing in improving the efficiency of production and reducing losses along the transmission network was essential, he said. 

Mazalerat identified three priorities for investment in the Sofia utility: improving efficiency through replacement of pipes and pumps, improving the condition of boilers at heating plants and bringing them up to environmental requirements and investing in co-generation.

The Privatisation Agency (PA) also made an announcement on Bulgarian utilities on September 20, saying that seven companies, all of them foreign-owned, had applied to take part in a tender for the steam-heating plant and central heating utility in Rousse.

The applicants were Czech utility CEZ, Germany’s E.ON, Russian RAO UES, French Dalkia, Slovenian power conglomerate Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE), Swiss-registered Mechel International Holding and Bulgarian-registered Parsons E&C, part of Australian utilities giant WorleyParsons, the agency said in a statement.

The agency will examine the applications and shortlist the candidates who will have the right to conduct due diligence of the Rousse plant and submit binding bids by November 3.

The agency said earlier this year that candidates seeking to own the Rousse plant would have to provide a sales record of a minimum 950 000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity or 700 000 MWh of heating power for the last three fiscal years and revenues of no less than 150 million leva (77 million euro) from their core activity for the same period. The bidders should also have a long-term credit rating not lower than BB+ of Standard and Poor’s, Ba1 of Moody’s or BB+ of Fitch Ratings.

In February, Bulgaria cancelled the previous tender for the sale of the Rousse plant, in which RAO UES placed the highest bid of 178.2 million euro. The PA also later rejected as unsatisfactory the bid of 36 million euro placed by CEZ, which was ranked second in the tender.