August 6 (BTA) - Bulgartransgaz EAD announced on Friday that the availability of free financial resources received from advance payment has enabled the company to start correspondence with the banks that have provided loans for the implementation of the company's investment programme.

As a result of the procedure initiated by Bulgartransgaz EAD, the gas transmission operator has received offers from the main creditor banks for a significant reduction of the interest rates under the already concluded contracts, in order to preserve the credit exposures. A significant reduction of the interest rates on the concluded loan agreements was achieved, as at the moment they are 1.35 - 2.00 per cent, at initial levels reaching 3.50 per cent. The largest reduction is from 3.5 to 1.65 per cent. As a result of the reduced interest rates, Bulgartransgaz EAD will realize additional interest savings under loan agreements to the amount of 18,252,220 leva, the company says.

On July 27 Russia's Gazprom Export has declared its intention and readiness to make a one-off advance payment to Bulgartransgaz EAD to the amount due for long-term capacity booked under their contract for the July 1, 2021-June 30, 2023 booking period, Bulgaria's gas transmission system operator said.

The sum that Gazprom owes for the booking period in question amounts to 704,477,888.26 leva (VAT-exclusive). With the 2.7 per cent discount, that makes a one-off advance payment to Bulgartransgaz of 683,302,760.39 leva (VAT-exclusive). The payment was made after the sides sign an additional agreement for a one-off payment to their Contract for Access and Transport.

Bulgartransgaz EAD repaid ahead of schedule part of the liabilities to the Arkad Consortium and liabilities to banks. After receiving an offer from the merger, the gas transmission operator paid 461,096,701.65 leva, thus the company will not owe an increase in the indicated amount and accordingly realizes savings to the amount of 80,321,808.44 leva.

In addition, given the early repayment of liabilities, an agreement was reached to reduce the amount of appreciation in connection with the deferred payment for a period of 3 years, as the rate of appreciation was reduced from 4.1 to 3.00 per cent on an annual basis, according to Bulgartransgaz EAD. The company has also realized additional interest savings to the amount of 14,641,567 leva.

This money enabled Bulgartransgaz EAD to repay 60 million euro to commercial banks ahead of schedule, through which interest savings to the amount of 7,328,833 leva were realized. After renegotiating the interest rates, Bulgartransgaz EAD realized total savings to the amount of almost 121 million leva, the announcement reads.

RI/MT
/МТ/