December 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said that it is going to consider an updated notice from Sofia-based Inercom regarding the company's proposed acquisition of the local assets of Czech energy group CEZ.
Interested parties can submit their statements regarding the deal by December 21, according to a notice drafted by Inercom and published on the website of the Commission for Protection of Competition last week.
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Inercom and the companies which it intends to acquire do not operate on the same market segments and the deal will not affect competition, the Bulgarian company said in the notice.
In July, the anti-trust body banned the deal, saying it will lead to the establishing of a dominant position on the photovoltaic power generation market. Later that month Inercom and CEZ both appealed the decision before Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court.
Subsequently, Inercom sold its photovoltaic business in order to address the concerns of the competition authority and asked for the start of new proceedings. The Commission for Protection of Competition declined to consider Inercom's request, saying that the initial proceedings had not been closed, as its decision was being challenged in court.
In a ruling on Inercom's appeal the Supreme Administrative Court said last month that the competition regulator does not have the right to dismiss a request to open proceedings. The anti-trust body has the right to terminate proceedings if it finds that the documents filed by the notifier do not meet legal requirements, the court ruled.
Earlier this month, CEZ Group told SeeNews that it plans to start parallel negotiations with India Power over the sale of its assets in Bulgaria, although its agreement with Inercom remains valid.
"CEZ intends to commence parallel negotiations with India Power - the next ranked bidder - which has already confirmed its continuing interest in purchasing the Bulgarian assets of CEZ," Alice Horakova, CEZ press officer, told SeeNews.
Even though the time period designated for Inercom to fulfil the conditions precedent to the purchase of the Bulgarian assets of CEZ expired on November 30, the share purchase agreement entered into with Inercom currently remains valid, Horakova added.
Subsequently, Inercom issued a statement saying that it is working towards receiving regulatory approval and completing the deal. Inercom Bulgaria has the support of global investment banks for the finalisation of the transaction, the company added. It did not elaborate.
CEZ assets in Bulgaria includes power distributor CEZ Razpredelenie [BUL:3CZ], power supplier CEZ Electro Bulgaria [BUL:1CZ], licensed electricity trader CEZ Trade Bulgaria, IT services company CEZ ICT Bulgaria, solar park Free Energy Project Oreshetz, biomass-fired power plant Bara Group and CEZ Bulgaria, which manages and coordinates the operations of the group's Bulgarian units.
The price of the transaction is 326 million euro ($378.3 million), according to CEZ Group's annual financial statement published in March.
($ = 0.8618 euro)