Bulgarian lender BACB becomes sole owner of Paytech

The bank signed the sale and purchase agreement with BTC on October 7, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"With the conclusion of the transaction herein BACB continues its strategy for entering the market for instant payments, known as “portfolio services”. The Bank acquires full control on Paytech and the forthcoming actions for its licensing as an E-money company," BACB said.

BACB is now due to enter the transfer of the shares into Bulgaria's commercial register. The bank will also implement other changes in the corporate status of Paytech, it added.

Paytech was founded at the beginning of 2019 as a joint venture investment of BACB and BTC, with the main purpose of developing portfolio services. The company currently has a registered capital of 1 million levs ($561,400/511,300 euro), according to data published in the commercial register. 

BTC, operating under the brand name Vivacom, is currently up for sale, with interest expressed by several UK and US-based private equity firms, according to recent reports by Bulgarian media.

In July, BACB said that its consolidated net profit edged down to 6.6 million levs in the first half of 2019 from 6.7 million levs in the like period of last year.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)