Bulgaria's privately owned First Investment Bank said that it had extended a loan of EUR 59 million to the buyer of the country's biggest steel mill Kremikovtzi despite the controversy surrounding the deal.

The bank said in an official statement that "First Investment Bank considers this to be a regular transaction, which will help speed up the economic recovery of the capital Sofia."

It added that "We decided to extend a loan of EUR 59 million to Eltrade Company as we believe that the company is able to implement the project, one of the arguments in favor of this being the fact that preliminary contracts for the sale of part of the idle assets in Kremikovtzi have already been signed."

The bank stressed it has analyzed the money flow expected in the case of the two possible scenarios - an operating company, as well as liquidation of the assets.

The lender also assured that Kremikovtzi will no longer be a polluter of the air near the capital Sofia since the coke and blast furnaces can not and will not be put back into operation.

Bulgaria finally sold on Tuesday the production assets of Kremikovtzi steel mill in a fourth auction to a newly established local company, owned by 26 year old Mr Lachezar Varnadzhiev.

(Sourced from www.novinite.com)