May 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian TV, Internet and telecoms services provider CableTEL has scrapped a $10 million (6.4 million euro) plan for expanding into Azerbaijan as conditions on the cable TV market in the country turned out to be unfavourable, the company's CEO said on Thursday.
“We gave up focusing [on Azerbaijan] at the current stage because the market environment was not allowing us to make a realistic business plan,” CableTEL CEO Dimitar Radev told SeeNews.
The company initially planned to launch operations in Azerbaijan in 2006 but the lack of clear regulations for the use of underground telecommunication networks in the ex-Soviet republic and failure to find suitable partners delayed its investment there.
CableTEL (www.cabletel.bg), which is 100%-owned by UK-registered Ramford Alliance, is also present in Bulgaria's southwestern neighbour Macedonia. It plans to expand to Serbia and Albania. Its main rival in Bulgaria is Eurocom Cable Management Bulgaria, owned by private equity investment company Warburg Pincus.
($ = 0.6343 euro)