September 12 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition said on Thursday that it has opened proceedings concerning retailer Maxima Bulgaria's planned lease of the 11 stores of supermarket chain Triumf in the city of Plovdiv.
The 11 stores are currently operated by local companies Markotsi, Vanichi 2008 and Top Tennis, a notice published on the regulator's website reads.
Interested parties have until September 19 to submit their statements regarding the transaction to the regulator.
According to commercial register data, all three companies are fully owned by private investors. Markotsi is owned by Kostadin Kesov, Vanichi 2008 - by Ivan Kesov, and Top Tennis by Todov Kesov.
The Triumf supermarket chain started operating in 2000 in Plovdiv.
Maxima Bulgaria operates 73 stores under its T-Market brand, located in 38 Bulgarian cities. The company opened nine new stores in 2018 and closed the year with a turnover of 259.7 million levs ($148.7 million/132.8 million euro) and EBITDA of 1.56 million levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)