Kremikovtzi will be sold within 48 hours, the steel plant’s CEO Alexander Tomov said in an interview with BNT (Bulgarian National TV).

He added that the buyer is a 34-year old Ukrainian tycoon, associated with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripska and that Kremikovtzi and CSKA football club, also owned by Indian tycoon Pramod Mittal, will probably be offered “in a package”.

Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Zhevago, who runs the Finance and Credit Group, seems to be the most likely buyer - in line with the description proffered by Kremikovtzi management.

Zhevago is an MP from the party of prime minister Yulia Timoshenko. He owns the world’s fourth largest iron ore deposit, the domestic truck manufacturer AvtoKraz and the elite Ukrainian football team Vorskla (Poltava). His personal fortune is estimated at 1.5 billion dollars.

Tomov explained that the present owner of the Pramod Mittal plant had to choose between investing 140 million euro in order to meet environmental requirements and selling his stake in the enterprise. The new owner will have to invest about 200 million euro in Kremikovtzi’s modernization.

Bulgarian-language Standart daily wrote that the Ukrainian billionaire did not want to pay more than 50 million euro for the steel plant but that Global Steel representatives negotiated for twice this sum. The same newspaper previously reported that Mittal would demand 500 million eurо for the plant.