First Investment Bank is among the potential investors interested in the privatisation of BDZ Freight Services, along with Romanian company Grup Feroviar Roman, according to the executive director of the Privatisation Agency Emil Karanikolov. The rest of a total of 7 parties, which have bought documents for participation in the privatisation, are law firms Urista Group, Georgiev, Todorov & Co., Grigorov and Partners and lawyers Valentin Ivanov and Todor Angelov.
7 January was the deadline by which investors could buy tender documents for the sale of the freight transport unit of the state-owned railway holding company BDZ. A total of 2,325,087 shares in the company, equivalent to 100% of its capital, are put up for sale. Strategic investors are required to have had a rail freight transport licence for the last five years, twice shorter the requirement in the previous tender and a turnover of at least €100m in each of the last three years, compared to €400m required in the first sale attempt. Financial investors are required to have had at least €400m in assets or equity holdings under management in each of the last three financial years, compared to €1bn in the previous procedure.