In renegotiating a loan from BNP Paribas, the National Electric Company (NEK) may lose between 8 million and 20 million euro, the Chairman of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (SCEWR) Konstantin Shoushoulov said on Tuesday.

The 250 million euro loan was received from BNP Paribas for the start of activities under the Belene Nuclear Power Plant Project at an additional interest rate of 0.425 per cent and at a general interest of some 5 per cent, Shoushoulov said. Due to a violation of the credit agreement on the part of NEK, the loan becomes recoverable in advance and should be renegotiated, but the additional interest increases some ten times and the state-owned company may lose from this between 8 million and 20 million euro depending on the increase of the general interest, Shoushoulov explained.

He said that the decision of SCEWR is that NEK should refuse the change in the conditions for the BNP Paribas loan.

"We are not surprised by the analysis made to NEK that the company is generating a loss," Shoushoulov also said. He added that for this there are both subjective and objective reasons, and one of the latter is the fall of the price of electricity on the external market. For this reason, NEK has suspended the export of electricity.

On Monday, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, Tencho Popov, told a news conference that the executive directors of NEK, Lyubomir Velkov and Mardik Papazyan, should be held personally liable for the bad financial results of the company.

Source: BTA