Hemus Hold is going to buy the aviation base of the once Bulgarian flag carrier Balkan Airlines, the bankrupt company's syndic Radoslav Tonev announced on Tuesday. The sum of BGN 6 M is due to be paid within five days, so that the buyer can enter into ownership. The shift in owners of Balkan's property became fact after the first winner at the open tender, which took place last week, BulSofAgro 2003 failed to observe the payment deadline. The former won the contest with its highest bidding price of BGN 11 M, but did not pay it till the deadline on Monday. Hemus Hold has been a majority stakeholder at private air company Hemus Air since August 2003. According to business registers, a 100 % owner of Hemus Hold is Balkan Hemus Group, whose solitary capital holder is Chimimport. The aviation base covers airplane hangars, laboratories, warehouses, and administrative buildings on a terrain of 18,562 square meters totally. The overall area of the buildings totals 20,571 square meters. The Balkan Air open tender was attended also by present national carrier Bulgaria Air, Scorpion Air and Bulsoftcontract, all of which started bidding from the initial price of BGN 3.3 M. Failing to pay in time, the toppled bidder BulSofAgro 2003 has also lost its deposit worth of BGN 330,000, or 10 % of the initial price. Hemus Air is one of most likely candidates for the upcoming privatisation of Bulgaria Air. However, there is no Parliament approved strategy yet.