October 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said that it has granted approval to local transport services company Transpekt to acquire bus companies Union Ivkoni and Grup Plus.
The combined market share of Union Ivkoni and Grup Plus on the local market is 13.8%, the Commission for Protection of Competition said in its decision, published on Friday.
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Under the regulator's practice, a deal is considered to have the potential to affect competition on the market if the combined market share of all participants in the concentration exceeds 15%.
The regulator's decision can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within a 14-day period.
According to data from Bulgaria's commercial register, Transpekt has a registered share capital of 50,000 levs ($29,623/25,565 euro), equally divided between two private individuals, Petar Gospodinov and Georgi Atanasov.
Commercial register data also shows that Georgi Atanasov is currently Union Ivkoni's manager but owns no stake in the company.
Union Ivkoni is majority owned by local holding company Synthetica [BUL:EHN].
Grup Plus, which has a registered capital of 2 million levs, is majority owned by private individual Galya Topalova holding a 52.15% stake. The remainder of the capital is owned by private individuals Zeki Bayram and Muge Bayram, holding stakes of 47.80% and 0.05%, respectively.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)