Yordan Nedev, CEO of the troubled Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), resigned “for personal reasons” on Wednesday.

It is still unclear who will take over after Nedev’s resignation, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski has told local media.

Nedev recently declared that passenger trains will have to stop in mid-August if the government does not restore the legal subsidy of the severely indebted company.

Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov agreed to restore the  subsidy on August 6.

Djankov had given the BDZ Holding one weekend to come up with new reforms to save the company; this happened as BDZ was about to collapse financially as a result of Djankov's decision to withhold the BGN 14 M subsidy for the state railways in July even though BDZ is entitled to it by law.

The Finance Minister suspended the state subsidy for BDZ in mid-July because the company was not paying installments on a state-guaranteed loan of USD 80 M taken from the World Bank in 1995.

The subsidy payments were restored after an agreement with Djankov for a transfer of properties owned by BDZ to the Finance Ministry.