August 13 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said that it is opening proceedings in relation to a deal from 2016 in which Agria Group Holding's [BUL:A72] acquired 100% of local company Kehlibar.
The regulator was not notified of the transaction, despite the fact that, according to data from the two companies' annual financial statements for 2015, the combined turnover of Agria Group Holding and Kehlibar exceeds the threshold which makes anti-trust clearance mandatory, the Commission for Protection of Competition said in a statement on Friday.
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Agria Group Holding's total consolidated turnover amounted to 114.2 million levs ($66.4 million/58.4 million euro) in 2015, while Kehlibar posted turnover of 39.6 million levs.
Under Bulgarian competition law, concentration is subject to mandatory prior notification to the competition authority when the combined turnover of all companies participating in the concentration in Bulgaria in the preceding financial year exceeds 25 million levs.
The concentration must also fulfil one of the following two conditions: either the turnover in Bulgaria of each of at least two of the enterprises participating in the concentration during the preceding financial year should exceed 3 million levs, or the turnover in Bulgaria of the enterprise subject to acquisition should exceed 3 million levs during the preceding fiscal year.
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 with a nominal value of 100 levs each.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)