Three foreign companies submitted binding offers for taking over the full stake in the district heating utility in the country's third largest city of Varna yesterday. The French energy company Dalkia International offered the highest price of EUR 6.78mn, followed by UK 's Ener-G with EUR 6.2mn, and the Czech Electricity Company (CEZ) with EUR 4.56mn. Austria 's EVN and Germany 's E.ON were also certified in the tender but did not file bids. The privatisation agency will rank the applicants next week. The price offer will be the main but not the only selection criterion. The gas-powered heating utility services around 13,000 households and 400 institutional customers. It has a pipeline network of 32 kilometres and two co-generation units with heat production capacity of 2.4MW and electricity production capacity of 2.18MW each. Last year, the company has generated total revenues of BGN 7.4mn (EUR 3.8mn) and a net profit of BGN 0.5mn.