INTERVIEW-Bulgaria expects binding bids for Belene in June

By Martin Dokoupil

PRAGUE, May 22 (Reuters) - Bulgaria expects two shortlisted investors to file binding bids in June for a 49 percent stake in its planned Belene nuclear power plant and to pick a winner later this year, Deputy Economy Minister Yavor Kuyumdjiev said on Thursday.

The country's power utility NEK has shortlisted German utility RWE (RWEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Belgium's Electrabel, owned by France's Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), as candidates to buy the minority stake in the 4 billion euro, 2,000 megawatt plant to be completed at the site on the Danube river.

NEK will keep the remaining 51 percent stake in Belene.

"During June they are going to present their final offers," Kuyumdjiev told Reuters in an interview. "At the start of July official negotiations will start with the commission."

"We want to do this (to pick the winner) this year because our government ends in the middle of next year. There are going to be general elections so we need to finish by then," he said on the sidelines of the European Nuclear Energy Forum in Prague.

Kuyumdjiev said the price was not the decisive factor in picking a winner.

"The price is not the most decision-making condition, but more or less conditions for future operation of the joint venture," he said. "It is a complex issue."

Bulgaria wants the nuclear plant to restore its position as a major electricity exporter in the Balkans after it was forced to shut Communist-era reactors as a condition of winning European Union membership.