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Bulgarian government relaunches privatisation process for rail feight operator
Published: Fri, 2015-01-09 13:44-
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Rail freight firm to be sold
Bulgaria’s Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski has relaunched the privatisation procedure of BDZ Freight Services, the freight unit of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ).
The minister has submitted a new proposal to privatise the company to the state-run Privatisation and Post-Privatisation Control Agency (PPCA), reports local news agency Novinite. An earlier attempt to put BDZ Freight Services on sale was halted by the country’s previous government, which did not disclose the reasons for taking such a decision.
In late 2013, Moskovski said that pivatising BDZ Freight Services will allow the state-owned passenger carrier, BDZ Passenger Services, to become a “stable and normal company”, and turn to a profit. The company has been struggling to stay financially afloat amid rising debt and competition.
On a related note, BDZ has decided to scrap some 38 trains from its schedule starting on January 12 as a result of the reduced public subsidy it is to obtain this year. The government’s allocation for the railway company was decreased by some BGN 40 million ($24.2 million).
In addition to this, BDZ is also expected to cut its staff as part of austerity measures this year. More rail lines are to be suspended by the company in February.
Local media estimate that BDZ has aggregate debts of about BGN 565 million ($342.3 million).
Av Jaroslaw Adamowski
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