May 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said it has approved Dutch-based Publicis Groupe Holdings' bid to take over the 24% interest in Bulgarian-based advertising and public relations company Publicis it does not already own.
Following the approval, Publicis Groupe Holdings can buy the 24% stake in Publicis from private individual Nikolay Nedelchev, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in its decision published earlier this week.
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According to the competition watchdog, the combined turnover of both parties to the deal for the last full financial year does not exceed 25 million levs ($13.8 million/12.8 million euro); therefore the CPC has not conducted a market analysis of the deal as Publicis Groupe Holdings was not obliged by law to inform the regulator about the transaction.
Interested parties have until May 18 to submit their opinions regarding CPC's decision.
Publicis had a revenue of 48 million levs and a net profit of 1.9 million levs in 2018, according to the company's most recent annual financial statement.
Publicis Groupe Holdings is a unit of French marketing and communications company Publicis Groupe.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)