Italian utility Enel will announce the buyer of its Bulgarian coal-fired power plant Maritsa East 3 on March 14, Reuters reported.
"Regarding Bulgaria, we are in talks with two buyers and about to reach a decision. I think we will announce it on March 14," Reuters reported late on Tuesday quoting Enel's chief executive officer Fulvio Conti as saying in Madrid.
Conti did not disclose the two candidate buyers. According documents to which Reuters had access, Russian electricity trader InterRAO is interested in the plant. Unnamed sources told Reuters in January that U.S. investment fund Contour Global too is bidding for Maritsa East 3.
In March 2009 Enel said it had started the process of selling the 73% stake in Maritsa East 3 it acquired in 2004. Bulgaria's state-owned electricity grid operator NEK owns the remaining 27% of the 908-megawatt (MW) plant. Sourse BTA