Bulgaria Air, incorporated in November 2002, is an international airline operator with its home base as Sofia Airport. It succeeded some of the assets of the country's flag carrier Balkan Airlines, which was declared bankrupt at the end of 2002 after a nearly two-year struggle to cover outstanding debt totalling around USD 100 million.
Bulgaria Air has three core activities: passenger transport, cargo transport and aircraft maintenance. The carrier serves 34 cities in 16 countries on three continents. During 2005, Bulgaria Air carried 517,200 passengers and operated a fleet of nine Boeing 737 aircrafts.
Strategic investors from Bulgaria or the European Union are required to have had revenue from air transportation services of more than EUR 150 million for each of the last two years and 750,000 passengers carried for the same period.
Financial investors are required to have managed financial assets of no less than EUR 250 million for the last two years and to have stakes in other companies for the minimum of EUR 150 million.
Previously, Italian private airlines Volare and Air One, Austrian Airlines and Bulgarian private Hemus Air showed interest in the privatisation. Todor Alexandrov, head of the privatisation agency, unveils that four companies have unveiled preliminary interest in the recently launched privatisation of the national flag carrier Bulgaria Air. The local carrier Hemus Air seems like the most committed bidder willing to take part in the race as a strategic or financial investor. The other three potential candidates are Austria Airlines, Russia 's Illiushin Finance, and consortium of US and British investment funds.
Potential applicants should purchase tender documents within 25 days after the announcement of the decision to proceed with the privatization of Bulgaria Air is published in the Official Gazette. The price of the tender documents, which do not include the information memorandum, is set at BGN 2000 or the equivalent in euro. The information memorandum may be purchased for BGN 5000 by persons, who have already obtained the tender documents. The bidding procedure includes two rounds of indicative and final offers and is expected to end up in September this year. The bidders short-listed for the second stage will be allowed to conduct their own due diligence at Bulgaria Air. Besides, short-listed bidders will have to deposit a five-year business plan, containing proposals for investments as well as a social program.
Source: IntelliNews