The National Electricity Company (NEC) of Bulgaria said in a statement Wednesday it is now open to offers from strategic equity investors interested in a share in a new nuclear power plant project in Benele.

Potential investors will receive up to 49 percent of the share capital of the joint public-private Belene Power Company, which will finance construction and operate the new plant. NEC itself will retain at least 51 percent of the shares of the Belene Power Company, the statement said.

"The investor will be expected to assist the debt financing of the Belene Power Company either by providing a corporate guarantee" or contracting a share of the electricity produced by the plant, it added.

The offer ends on July 6 this year.

First launched in 1987, the Belene project was suspended several years due to the pressure from environmentalists. But in 2005 the local government renewed plans to build the facility to compensate for an expected downturn in its energy exports.

Source: Xinhua