Toplofikatsia Ruse AD (Bulgaria)

Toplofikatsia Ruse, which was established in 1972, is the steam heating utility operating in Bulgaria's Danube port of Ruse. The firm was set up after the merger of Toplofikacia-Ruse and Ruse-East thermal power plant. Toplofikacia Ruse is divided into two units - Ruse Iztok TPP and the city heating network. The company, which produces steam and electricity, serves approximately 18,000 residents.
In August 2006, Bulgaria's Privatisation Agency launched a tender for the sale of 100% in the Ruse steam-heating plant. In December 2006, the sell-off body picked Slovenian power conglomerate Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE) as buyer of 100% in the steam-heating plant in exchange for EUR 85.1 million. The deal was finalised in late August 2007. In line with privatisation terms, HSE pledged to keep a 51% stake in the heating plant in the three years following the acquisition, unless the Bulgarian government's asset-selling agency gives the go-ahead for an earlier sale. HSE also promised to keep the core activity of the heating plant for three years after the purchase. Shortly after the privatisation was completed, HSE said it planned to sell 49% of the heating plant, to an unnamed business partner, to secure financing for the acquisition.
In December 2007, New York-listed Russian mining and metals group Mechel OAO said it had paid HSE EUR 50.2 million for 49% of the heating plant in a deal approved by Bulgarian anti-trust authorities. In 2010 the Russian holding giant Mechel acquired full stake in Toplofikatsia Ruse through its Swiss-based subsidiary Mechel International. Three years later, in mid-2013 the Russian company sold 100% of the heating plant to local Toplofikatsiya Pleven.