SOFIA (Bulgaria), August 28 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian cable TV, Internet and voice company Eurocom Cable Management Bulgaria expects to get control over its main local competitor CableTEL by the end of the year, Eurocom’s chairman said on Thursday.
“I expect it to happen before the end of the year,” Petyo Staikov told SeeNews, adding that Eurocom's owner, private equity investor Warburg Pincus, is still awaiting approval by the country’s anti-trust body.
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Integration between the two companies will take between six and twelve months, Staikov said, adding that the company will reassess its expansion plans after the merger.
Warburg Pincus earlier this year said it plans to buy CableTEL for an undisclosed sum. The takeover will make the company the largest player on the Bulgarian cable TV market.
Eurocom CEO Nicholas Mearing-Smith in May said that the company was looking at eastern Europe for possible buys, particularly in Croatia, Serbia, and Turkey.
CableTEL CEO Dimitar Radev later that month said that CableTEL is ready to spend up to 400 million euro ($587.4 million) on expansion in southeastern Europe, including Serbia, Albania and Kosovo. CableTEL, owned by UK-registered Ramford Alliance Limited, is currently present in Macedonia.
Following the merger, Eurocom will have some 25% of the cable TV market in the country of 7.6 million people and about 10% of the Internet market, Staikov said.
The cable TV and Internet market in Bulgaria is worth at least 200 million euro and it can grow by 15% in the medium term, according to Mearing-Smith.
($ = 0.6770 euro)