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Bulgaria: Competition watchdog gives green light to Vivacom sale

By  |  January 10, 2016
Bulgaria’s competition watchdog said on Friday it has given the go ahead for Bulgarian businessman Spas Roussev to take control of the country’s leading telecoms operator Vivacom.

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    Vivacom was put up for auction by its previous owner VTB Capital, the investment banking arm of Russia’s VTB bank , after an indirect holding company of Vivacom defaulted on a 150 million euro bridge financing loan last May.

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    Roussev, a real estate investor with experience in the telecoms sector, paid 330 million euros for Vivacom and agreed to take on 400 million euros of debt, meaning the implied price of Vivacom was 730 million euros.

    Bulgaria’s biggest telecoms operator by revenue has had financial difficulties due to its association with fugitive businessman Tsvetan Vassilev, who has been charged with embezzlement relating to the collapse of the country’s fourth-largest lender Corporate Commercial Bank.

    Full content: Novinite

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