Deyan Daneshki, Executive Director of state-owned postal carrier Bulgarian Posts EAD, has said that the company expects a loss in its 2012 financial report.

In a Wednesday interview for the Focus news agency, Daneshki noted that the company was striving to reduce the negative financial result as much as possible.

He made clear that Bulgarian Posts EAD had closed 2011 at a loss of BGN 9.2 M.

Daneshki argued that the negative financial results of the state-owned company had largely been caused by the liberalization of the market of postal services from January 1, 2011, which had given private operators the opportunity to enter the market with aggressively low prices.

The Executive Director of Bulgarian Posts emphasized that the company had a social function, operating in over 5000 settlements in the country.

He drew attention to the fact that offering services on such a wide territory required substantial expenses.

"When revenues are dropping, expenses do not follow the same pattern, there are constant expenses," Daneshki declared.

He reminded that Bulgarian Posts had applied for state aid for the first time this year.

Daneshki informed that the first step was for the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) to approve the amount of the compensation on the basis of data submitted by Bulgarian Posts.

He said that the CRC had acknowledged in a decision from December 19, 2012 that the state-owned postal operator had sustained unfair financial burden to the tune of BGN 22, 750 M in 2011.

The Executive Director of Bulgarian Posts made clear that the European Commission was yet to give the green light to the financial aid, adding that the amount of money that would be approved could not be predicted at the current stage.