Four companies bid for Transimpex

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Four companies have placed bids for purchasing a 78% stake in duty-free and trade company Transimpex, the Bulgarian Privatisation Agency said this week. The potential buyers are Bulgaria's Consortium Seacom-Sofcom, believed to be a consortium between Galenit Invest and an unnamed duty-free operator, and two UK-registered companies. Two management-employee buyout groups, Transimpex RMK and Transimpex Privat, are also thought to be involved.

Transimpex is the country's leading duty-free operator and also deals in foreign currency trade, and domestic trade operations. Bids closed on November 7 and are now to being considered by experts, the Agency said. A total of 18 companies had originally shown interest in Transimpex, all potential bidders having bought tender papers. The deposit for taking part in the final round of the public tender was set at Lev600,000 ($275,000).

This is the second attempt at privatising Transimpex and the company's duty-free trade licence would expire at the end of 2001, making it unclear what is on offer. The Bulgarian News Digest has reported that the renewal of Transimpex' duty-free licence depends to a great extent on whether there will be enough investor interest in it this time. The government has promoted the idea of closing down all duty-free shops on grounds that it was a requirement for EU membership. Transimpex manages 17 out of the 31 duty-free shops on the Bulgarian border checkpoints, many of these on the unaffected Turkish or Romanian borders.