Bulgaria's new center-right government plans to list on the Stock Exchange shares of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, which groups the country's top energy assets, at the end of 2010 at the earliest.

"The move will be made only after the operations of the mega structure are streamlined," Maya Hristova, deputy economy and energy minister, announced.

"Before we take this step, we need to see a turnaround in the financial results of the National Electric Company NEK and the mines, which will be in the red yet again at the end of the third quarter this year," Hristova added.

The government has been voicing plans to list shares of the energy holding or its subsidiaries on the Stock Exchange for a few months already, but the details have remained nebulous. No agreement has been reached on the goals that turning the holding into a public company will pursue.

Initial plans have been for between 10% and 15% of the capital of companies to be listed on the Stock Exchange.

The previous Socialist-led government set up the mega-structure last year in a bid to strengthen the country's' position on the European power market and manage major energy projects Bulgaria has committed to, including Belene nuclear power plant, Nabucco and the South Stream gas pipelines.

The holding was created with the merger of five state-owned companies - the National Electric Company NEK, the gas monopoly Bulgargaz, the Maritza Iztok Mines, the Maritza Iztok 2 Thermal Plant, and the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant into a EUR 4 B energy giant.

It is a sole owner joint-stock company with a 100% Bulgarian state ownership.

The new center-right government of GERB party, which swept the July general elections, has subjected the Bulgarian Energy Holding to financial checks to find out how the money poured into it for raising its capital has been used.

At the end of August it announced plans to dissolve the mega-structure only to abandon them a few months later.

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