April 22 (SeeNews) - State-owned Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) is seeking the approval of the competition regulator to absorb its fully-owned unit BDB Factoring, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said on Thursday.
As a result of the transaction, BDB Factoring's property will be transferred to its parent, as the company will be terminated without liquidation, the antitrust body said in a notice.
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The deal is in line with an internal restructuring within the BDB group, the regulator added.
The transaction is not expected to influence any of the markets in the country, the CPC added.
Interested parties have until April 29 to file their statements regarding the notified deal before the competition authority.
According to information published on BDB Factoring's website, the company was established in 2019, as part of the BDB financial group. BDB Factoring provides working capital for the business through the transfer of ownership of receivables, without the requirement for material security.
Last year, the state-owned lender successfully completed a 140 million levs ($86.2 million/71.6 million euro) capital increase, raising its capital to some 1.44 billion levs. Earlier in 2020, the government approved changes to the 2020 budget of the economy ministry, allowing it to reallocate 140 million levs for an increase of BDB's capital.
Also in 2020, the BDB completed the acquisition of an 18.35% stake in local First Investment Bank (Fibank) for nearly 140 million levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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