The British bank HSBC was named consultant on the Belene N-plant project, Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traicho Traikov said on Tuesday.

Minister Traikov would not disclose any details regarding the price agreed with the Bank saying that this would be done by the Bulgarian Energy Holding, which is carrying out the procedure. So far the Holding has not publicized any information about the results of the competition, which lasted for about an year, the electronic version of the "Dnevnik" paper wrote. The successful bidder was selected on Monday. Its main competitor was Rothschild.

The consultant is expected to make a financial analysis of the project and give an opinion on whether it is worth constructing the N-plant.

Prime Minister Boiko Borissov observed that the project has been officially launched three times but its value has not actually been set. Borissov referred to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as saying that the price of the Belene N-plant would exceed 6,000 million euro. The Bulgarian Prime Minister recalled, however, that the previous government had put the price at 3,970 million euro.

Source: BTA