BULGARIA EXTENDS DZI BID DEADLINE BY ANOTHER THREE WEEKS

Bulgaria’s privatisation agency said today that it was extending by three weeks the deadline to bid for a majority stake in the country’s largest state insurer DZI, in order to give potential buyers enough time to prepare offers. The agency said that bids for a stake of between 51% and 67% of DZI would be accepted until 5.30 pm on February 5, 2001. It has extended the deadline several times since last September, when the sale was first announced, to enable potential investors to prepare competitive offers. So far it has allowed three potential buyers — Austria’s Generali Holding Vienna, a subsidiary of Italian insurance group Generali; Dutch insurer Eureko and a consortium grouping Netherlands-based TBI Holding Co and DZI 2000, a company set up by DZI managers — to study the financial state of the fully state-owned company. TBI Holding Company has already acquired 51% of Bulstrad, Bulgaria’s largest insurer and reinsurer. The agency has set no minimum price for DZI, which held 62% of the local insurance market in 1999, but an independent consultant has valued the company at $35m, an estimate said by DZI to be too low. Companies bidding for DZI are required to be insurers with a minimum annual revenue of Dm20m from life assurance and Dm40m from general insurance over the past three years. Bulgaria's insurance market comprises 28 state-owned and private companies, including foreign firms such as Germany’s Allianz, AIG Life Bulgaria and Austria’s Grawe.