The promises of Economy Minister Dragomir Stoynev for imminent brighter future of the Bulgarian economy, more and more obviously fail to match with reality. Early in January in an interview for the BANKER weekly he clearly stated that within a week from then he expect the end of the acquisition of the failing private company Remotex in Radnevo. His confidence clearly arose from the need to suppress the growing tension in the enterprise, in which 564 workers had been waiting for their wages for months. A current owner of the company – the company Polet 21 Ltd., which in turn is owned by Galin Nedeltchev, Ioannis Giofkos and Sabin Spahiev instead of seeking a way to settle disagreements with its staff decided that the best option is to file a notice before the Haskovo Labour Office that it would lay off more than 300 people.
Facing the danger of having these hungry and angry workers stand at the entrance of his ministry, Mr. Stoynev apparently decided it was best to begin enchanting them with a future nationalization of the company. Naturally, this task was entrusted to the Bulgarian Energy Holding, which has to pay the bill.
Clearly the Minister is far from normal practices in a constitutional state, as his ideas can not be realized only through his order. This was the reason for the state to make an emergency tender to select an appraiser of assets.
The competition involved four companies – the single-person joint stock company Balance – M of the licensed auditor Mariana Mihaylova, the consortium DDZZ Kambourov – European Programme Advisory, Semper Fortis Engineering Service, an initiative of the law firm Kambourov and Co and managed by Yavor Kambourov and Vladimir Rangelov, and the consortium between Wolf Theiss – Transacta – Star 999, KPMG Bulgaria and SGS Bulgaria. The latter three companies and consortia are known in the local market, but apparently their offers failed to prove attractive enough and the winner was chosen to be the sole proprietor Balance -M of Mrs. Mihailova. The BANKER tried to understand the agreed fee for this task was, but it turned out to be a trade secret, this was the official response of the press centre of the Ministry of Economy and Energy. The company has been chosen, they explained, as it meets the requirements. What were the requirements was not clarified though.
As to the deadline for submission of the independent evaluation – according to the signed contract, it should be ready by March 24.
We tried to understand the extent of the fee to be paid for the work of Mariana Mihaylova, but she refused to comment on the issue.
According to insider’s information, the amount the Bulgarian Energy Holding is to pay for the due diligence is about 150,000 levs.
As for the assessment of the company’s assets, it is likely to be about 15 million levs. The debts of the company are for another 25 million levs. However, this is only the beginning. What is yet to come are the new negotiations with the owner, who would hardly be inclined to make discounts. Let us note, that at the beginning of the scandal with the company, Mr. Spahiev asked the state for 60 million levs for the company. He bought the firm ten years ago for 9.2 million levs plus contracts for production for years to come.
Business circles comment that the Economy Ministry is now in a dead-end street and is willing to pay 20 million levs to the private owner. Legally this will take place through the newly established company Energy Investment Company (set up with a capital of 50,000 levs) owned by Bulgarian Energy Holding.
The BANKER
