Jacklen Cohen, head of Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) company, has been dropped from the board of directors of the state-owned group, the Energy Ministry has announced.

Cohen has been replaced as board member by Bulgargaz CEO Petyo Ivanov under a decision of Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova.

A proposal to appoint Ivanov as new BEH chief will be submitted at a meeting of the Board of Directors of BEH, which is the holding structure of most of Bulgaria's state-owned energy companies including the National Electricity Company (NEK), gas supplier Bulgargaz, and gas network operator Bulgartransgaz.

“The changes are aimed at optimizing the performance of BEH and will take effect after their registration with the Registry Agency,” according to a brief statement posted on the website of the Energy Ministry on Tuesday.

The statement gave no specific reason for the decision to replace BEH CEO.

The change at the top of BEH comes at a time when the holding company is expected to finalize negotiations with banks for taking out a loan of up to EUR 650 M, media outlet mediapool.com commented.

BEH needs the money to repay debt owed by NEK to two Bulgarian power plants owned by U.S.-based AES Corp. and ContourGlobal, respectively.

The coal-fired power plants, AES Galabovo and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3, owed BGN 325 M to the lignite coal mines in Maritza East basin as of early December 2015. The plants’ U.S. owners have agreed to cut the price at which they sell their electricity to NEK once they get repaid by the company.

Nine banks had confirmed interest in lending up to EUR 650 BGN to BEH, Petkova said in December 2015.

The loan offers of the potential lenders should become known by February 20 in order to strike a deal by the end of the month when a deadline will expire for the repayment of NEK’s debt to the two power plants.

Nikolay Pavlov will replace Petyo Ivanov as head of Bulgargaz, according to the statement.

Ivanov had previously worked as head of the financial controlling department and chief accountant at NEK. Pavlov had been finance director and board member of NEK.