THE Privatisation Agency announced on June 24 its decision to grant Nu Image Bulgaria the right to buy Boyana Film studios.
Nu Image, part of the US-based Nu Image/Millennium Films, won the tender to privatise a 95 per cent stake in the studio, which is located in Boyana, a Sofia suburb.
Nu Image Bulgaria offered 12.2 million leva for the studio and pledged to invest an additional 30.5 million leva.
The agency said it would sign the deal with Nu Image within 50 days. Compensatory instruments can be used to pay for 30 per cent of the shares in Boyana Film.
The UK's Ealing Studios and German production company Bavaria Film also submitted bids for a stake in Boyana Film.
Established in 1962, Boyana Film is one of the few European film studios with the capacity to handle a full film production cycle, including the pre-production, production and post-production of movies, television programmes and commercials.
Local media have said some bidders were only interested in using the 100-hectare plot on which the studio is located to build a high-end residential neighbourhood and not in making movies.
Lawyers for Bavaria Film said they would hold consultations and make a decision on whether to appeal the agency's decision soon, according to media reports on June 27.
Bavaria Film offered to pay about nine million leva for the 95 per cent stake in Boyana Film, and said it was prepared to invest 13.2 million leva in the studio, including 6.5 million in the first year.
Ealing Studios' lawyers said they found it striking that after such a long review, the decision was announced a day before the parliamentary elections on June 25. Ealing has not yet decided whether to appeal the decision.
Ealing Studios offered to pay 7.5 million leva and invest 18.8 million leva in the studios, including more than nine million leva in the first year.
"We are pleased with the agency's decision and have been expecting it with impatience, as our offer was undoubtedly the best," said Ivan Todorov, a lawyer for Nu Image, as quoted by Mediapool.bg. He also said Nu Image had big plans for the future development of Boyana Film and the Bulgarian film industry.
In March, a spokesperson from the agency's tender commission said the prices offered were not the only criteria in ranking candidates. The offers should have been ranked as much in terms of price and investment as they were on a five-year plan to develop Boyana Film.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the sale of Boyana Film since the bidding began. Filmmakers accused the agency on several occasions of setting the criteria of their search to match Nu Image, which had used Boyana Film to shoot movies for a few years but had not released any high-end films in cinemas.
The agency's executive director Atanas Bangachev called this speculation and said his agency had not shown special favour for any candidates.