France Telecom and its Orange SA unit are looking into the possibility of bidding for Bulgaria’s state-owned telecom monopoly the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC). That was announced by Bulgaria’s Transport Minister Plamen Petrov. The Privatization Agency extended the term, during which the potential buyers of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company will be able to place their indicative offers. The deadline was changed from May 27 to June 10. The term for buying the tender documents has also been extended by two weeks – from May 23 to June 7. Up to 65 percent of the BTC will be sold in a two-stage competition open to both telecoms firms and financial investors. Under the strategy up to 20 percent in BTC will be placed on the local stock exchange. No minimum bid price was set for the sell-off. There is an option to get the country's third GSM network licence.BTC, whose monopoly expires in 2003, posted a net profit of BGN 241 M in 2001, up 43 percent from the previous year.