BNP Paribas (BNPP) has responded to questions from The Sofia Echo about whether it is or will be financing the construction of Bulgaria’s planned nuclear power station at Belene.

After BNPP Bulgaria consulted with the financial institution’s French headquarters, on October 24 it said that the “general purpose syndicated loan agreement in the total amount of 250 million euro was signed between NEK (National Electricity Company) and eight international banks in early July 2007”.

Asked to identify these eight financial institutions, BNPP said: “It is part of the compliance policy of investment banks not to comment on mandates.”

The loan, which has a five-year term, was for “general investment purposes”, the bank said, without giving further details about how it would be used.

According to the financial institution, the loan documentation “does not specify any limitations with regards to what kinds of investment” would be financed. BNPP said that the funds could be used for financial trading operations and even for general working capital needs of NEK.

On October 17, Greenpeace energy issues expert for Central and Eastern Europe Jan Haverkamp told The Sofia Echo that on the June 13 2007, BNP Paribas chief executive Baudiun Prot met with Haverkamp, Heffa Schucking from urgewald/BankTrack (Germany), Sebastien Godinot from Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth, a French organisation) and Albena Simeonova from the BeleNE! coalition (Bulgaria).

According to Haverkamp, Prot said during the meeting that BNPP was to sign the agreement for 250 million euro for NEK within a few days and that “that money would not be used for construction of Belene, but only for studies”. Haverkamp said that because the signing took a slightly longer time, BNPP lost “at least six of the 16 banks in their consortium in the meantime”. Haverkamp said that Prot had told the group that “BNP Paribas would ‘certainly’ not be involved in further financing of Belene”.

Asked whether BNPP would further finance other parts of the planned NPP project, the bank told The Sofia Echo that it “has not financed ‘parts of the Belene project’.

“There is no decision if and when BNP Paribas would consider financing ‘parts of the Belene project’,” the bank said.

It said that to its knowledge, there was currently no Belene project finance transaction being offered in the financial markets.

Asked whether it was currently involved in advising prospective strategic partners to finance bigger part of Belene project, BNPP said again that it was “part of the compliance policy of investment banks not to comment on advisory mandates”.

The bank said that it was not searching for other banks to work with to provide a larger corporate loan for the Belene project. “BNPP has no mandate today to approach banks for corporate loans for Belene,” the bank said.

Haverkamp told The Sofia Echo that the international anti-Belene coalition had intelligence that BNPP had “asked permission to advise several of the contenders for the strategic investment tender”. He said the bank was “currently shopping around for other banks to form a consortium to finance a large sum to NEK (for NEK’s 51 per cent)”.