Bulgaria's privatisation agency said that local company Duet Railway Bulgaria remains the sole eligible candidate for the privatisation of the freight transport unit of state-owned railway holding company BDZ.
Duet Railway Bulgaria was the only candidate buyer to file the relevant classified information clearance documents by Monday when the submission deadline expired, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The other five candidate buyers who had purchased documents to participate in the tender were Romanian rail freight transport company Grup Feroviar Roman, Czech transport and logistics services company Advanced World Transport and three lawyers acting on behalf of their clients - Petko Ilchev, Emil Ivanov and Iglika Misheva-Bruseva.
The deadline for furnishing a security deposit and submitting binding offers remains October 29.
Last month, Bulgaria opened a one-round public tender procedure to sell its 2,325,087 shares in the rail freight haulier.
The tender winner will have to maintain the company's labour costs and payroll intact for a period of three years.