Local businessman Hristo Kovachki and the Karlovo municipality have reached an agreement on the paying-up of the authorised capital of their joint venture Bania Golf and Spa Resort.

The municipality owns 34% of the JV, established as a public-private partnership in mid-2007. It has contributed to the balance sheet of the JV 22 land plots and buildings in Bania. The residual equity is held by the private partner.

The new Karlovo mayor Naiden Naidenov had beef with the clauses in the JV agreement which allowed for the authorised capital to be paid up in installments.

Naidenov said that a general meeting to be held between February 15 and 20 will vote on his proposal to launch a liquidation and dissolution procedure for the JV if the whole capital is not paid up within 30 days.

The existing Bania sports complex will be incorporated in the resort development with an overhaul of all buildings and related infrastructure scheduled to begin on April 1.

A week ago, Kovachki said the cost of the resort will be 60 mln euro.

The spa center will be the first component of the resort that will be delivered. The golf course and the vacation villages will be added at a later stage.