In Brief
Bulgaria tries to sell thermal power plant again SOFIA (Reuters) -Bulgaria plans a third attempt to sell a 630-megawatt thermal power plant in an open tender after previous efforts failed, the privatization agency said yesterday. The agency plans to call the tender for a 100 percent stake in the Bobov Dol plant in western Bulgaria by the end of the month and hopes to conclude a deal by year-end, Veneta Natcheva, spokeswoman for the agency, said. «The agency has sped up work and plans to announce the tender by the end of September,» she said. New European Union member Bulgaria canceled Bobov Dol’s sale to Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) for a second time in May, following environment and coal-purchasing disagreements. PPC, which has bid 105.2 million euros for the generator, is currently appealing against the agency’s decision in court. Natcheva said the court had ruled PPC’s appeal inadmissible and that PPC was now appealing the court’s decision. News Corp may bid for Turkish media assets WARSAW (Reuters) – News Corp is considering a bid for broadcaster ATV and Sabah newspaper to expand its presence in the promising Turkish market, the media conglomerate’s No 2 official Peter Chernin said yesterday. «We will certainly take a look at it,» said Chernin, News Corp’s president and chief operating officer, in an interview during a visit to Poland. Media assets, including ATV and Sabah and several magazines, are set to go on sale in November after being seized from Turkish conglomerate Ciner Group by the state Savings Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) for alleged irregularities. They are expected to fetch a minimum price of $1.1 billion. Free light bulbs Cyprus will distribute thousands of free energy-saving light bulbs to households to knock down its energy consumption by the end of the decade, officials said yesterday. «It is part of a five-year plan aiming at an energy conservation of 1 percent yearly on energy consumption and reaching a total of 5 percent until the end of 2010,» Cypriot Commerce and Industry Minister Antonis Michaelides said. The project is costing 1.88 million Cyprus pounds ($4.4 million). Solon Kassinis, head of Cyprus’s energy service, said islanders needed to become more energy-conscious. «Cyprus comes first Europe-wide in the use of household irons. Cypriots even iron their underwear.» (Reuters) Building permits drop Greek construction activity, measured by the number of new building permits, fell 7.7 percent year-on-year in June, the National Statistics Service (NSS) said yesterday. A total of 40,054 new permits were issued around the country in the first six months of the year, down 3 percent from the year-earlier period, amounting to 38.577 million cubic meters, the NSS said. (Reuters)
