Company Profile: National Electric Company

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Company Profile: National Electric Company

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August 24th, 2007

http://www.nek.bg/cgi-bin/index.cgi?l=2

Bulgaria's National Electric Company (NEK) is 100 percent state-owned and in the process of restructuring. It is scheduled to be privatized after 2007, when Bulgaria joins the European Union.

Based in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, NEK is involved in the generation, transmission and supply of electricity; energy importing an exporting; and building and maintaining infrastructure for electrical transmission.

NEK has been a major regional source of energy providing 50 to 90 percent of the extra energy needed in SE Europe.

In 2005, the company reported after-tax profits of 57,273,000 Bulgarian lev or €30 million.

NEK recently sold its Varna coal power plant to CEZ (see profile), the Czech government-owned power company, for € 206 million.

It is expected that after the closure of parts of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which is required for Bulgaria's accession to the EU, the NEK will be forced to raise electricity prices and may become a net importer of electricicty.

It is building a new nuclear power plant in Belene and recently gave a contract to a Russian firm to build the reactors.