Bulgaria, struggling to boost public revenues, has surprisingly abandoned plans to sell its minority stake in a Bulgarian ice-cream making unit of Nestle SA.

State-run LB Bulgaricum EAD, owner of Nestle Ice Cream Bulgaria, a leading ice cream maker in the country, will not sell its 10.86% stake on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, the Sofia-based Privatization Agency said in a statement on Monday, without making clear what prompted the decision.

Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, currently owns a 89,14% stake in the company.

The bourse auction was launched on December 14 and the government will sell shares in twenty nine other companies at it.

The privatization tender, through which the state will seek to boost public revenues by some BGN 80 M, will run until December 27on the Sofia stock exchange.

The government offers for privatization through the Sofia stock exchange a package of small state companies or stakes in such firms as part of its efforts to rake in revenues.

This is the first attempt at privatization for the center-right government of Boyko Borisov since the beginning of its term last summer.

The package includes twenty nine state companies, the most attractive of them being Montazhi Sofia, which deals with technological equipment, steel constructions, electric installations, industrial pipelines, reservoirs.

The offered price for 100% stake in the company has been set at BGN 70 M, but analysts say it is too high and most likely no bidders will turn up.

The bourse auction includes also a 49% stake in the Plovdiv free-trade zone and 33% stake in fodder maker Furazhi AD, the Sofia-based Privatization Agency said.

The privatization through the Sofia stock exchange does not entail the listing of the offered companies.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!