November 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said that it has decided to impose a 65,000 levs ($36,500/33,200 euro) fine on Agria Group Holding [BUL:A72] for failure to properly notify the regulator about the acquisition of local company Kehlibar in 2016.
The fine is equal to 5% of Agria Group Holding's non-consolidated turnover in 2018, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in its decision on Wednesday.
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The acquisition did not competition of the local market significantly, which justifies the lower amount of the fine, the regulator said.
However, the regulator had to be notified as the combined turnover of Agria Group Holding and Kehlibar exceeded the threshold which makes anti-trust clearance mandatory, according to data from the two companies' annual financial statements for 2015.
Agria Group Holding's total consolidated turnover amounted to 114.2 million levs in 2015, while Kehlibar posted a turnover of 39.6 million levs.
In August 2016, Agria Group Holding signed a deal to acquire 100% of Kehlibar from private individual Svetlomir Todorov. Kehlibar's share capital at the time totalled 760,000 levs, divided into 7,600 shares of 100 levs in par value each.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)