the Executive Director of the Privatization Agency Apostol Apostolov announced. He explained that the start of the key privatization deal had been delayed deliberately with one week so that the beginning of the sale does not coincide with the opening of the sell-off procedure for Bulgartabac Holding. Parliament ratified the sell-off plan of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company on March 21. Up to 65 % of Bulgarian Telecommunication Company (BTC) will be sold in a two-stage competition open to both telecoms firms and financial investors, under the sell-off plan. Under the strategy up to 20 % in BTC will be placed on the local stock exchange. Financial investors with assets of over EUR 300 M will be eligible to bid. Candidates who wish to control the BTC should be telecoms with at least EUR 500 M revenue for 2001 or operating fixed line networks with two million subscribers at least, the sell-off plan of the company envisages. No minimum bid price would be set for the sell-off. There will be an option to get the country's third GSM network licence.