BULGARIA: The state rail operations holding company BDZ Holding and its passenger BDZ Ptnicheski Prevozi passenger and BDZ Tovarni Prevozi freight businesses have been reunited as one organisation, Minister of Transport & Communications Nikolay Sabev announced on February 4.
Sabev said the BDZ companies had been operating at a loss every year since 2002, reaching an accumulated deficit of 421m leva. Declining freight traffic had led to BDZ Tovarni Prevozi selling assets to cover its losses, but ‘this will no longer happen; BDZ’s assets will no longer be sold’.
Yordan Mirchev has been appointed as CEO, and Lyubomir Syarov and Petko Petkov have joined the board,
The minister said the task for the first six months would be to reduce costs and increase revenues. The aim is to reach financial stability by the end of 2023, allowing access to domestic and international capital markets in 2024.
‘We have set very clear parameters through which we will monitor the financial and functional condition of the new structure’, Sabev said.
A five-year programme for sustainable development and modernisation to increase market share is being prepared.
Mirchev said BDZ Tovarni Prevozi used to carry 6 to 7 million tonnes of freight a year, and the goal is to reach 10 million tonnes/year. The passenger business is to invest 900m leva purchasing passenger rolling stock with financing from the EU’s resilience and recovery fund.
