Jan 26, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Austrian cardboard and packaging maker Mayr-Melnhof is eyeing a packaging and filter mill owned by Bulgarian cigarette monopoly Bulgartabak, the the company said. Bulgaria, which aspires to join the EU, has said it will decide soon on a privatisation strategy for state-owned Bulgartabak after four unsuccessful attempts to sell it as a whole and in parts since the late 1990s. "We have expressed our interest in acquiring packaging plant Yuri Gagarin," Wilhelm Hormanseder, chairman of the Austrian company told reporters. "We have been assured that Bulgartabak will decide in the following weeks when and how to launch the privatisation." Hormanseder, whose company has nine tobacco packaging facilities in Europe, said he expects a quick procedure and indicated his firm might lose interest in the deal if the launch of the sale was delayed by more than three months. Bulgartabak, in which the state holds around 80%, has four cigarette mills, 15 mainly loss-making tobacco processing plants, and a packaging unit. The Yuri Gagarin packaging mill, 20% of which is floated on the Sofia stock exchange, has a market capitalisation of around 30 million levs ($18.79 million).