December 23 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Telelink Business Services Group (TBS Group) [BSE:TBS] said on Thursday that the country's competition authority is looking into plans by Luxembourg-registered Slovenia Broadband, part of Dutch-based multi-play and media provider United Group, to acquire a majority stake in the Bulgarian company.
The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) will analyse the expected effects of the transaction and will come up with a decision on whether to approve it, TBS Group said in a bourse filing.
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Last month, TBS Group said that Slovenia Broadband has sent a letter of intent to acquire a stake of at least 51% in its share capital.
TBS Group said earlier that its shareholders Lyubomir Minchev, Ivo Evgeniev and Spas Shopov were ready to offer for sale on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) a combined stake of more than 50% at the beginning of next year.
As at 15:20 CET on Thursday, shares in TBS Group traded 1.31% higher at 15.50 levs ($8.953/7.92 euro) on the BSE.
TBS Group was spun off from local company Telelink Bulgaria in 2019, becoming the sole owner of IT infrastructure, information security and digital transformation solutions provider Telelink Business Services and several other units of Telelink engaged in similar activities.
At the beginning of 2021, United Group completed the acquisition of Bulgarian multi-platform media company Nova Broadcasting Group in line with its strategy to own both telecommunications and media assets in the markets it serves. In 2020, United Group bought Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) which operates under the Vivacom brand. The group is also present in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Greece
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)