Bulgaria's Zahar Invest gets regulatory ban for filing Zaharni Zavodi buyout bid

The amended tender does not meet the requirements of the relevant legislation and harms the interests of the target company's minority shareholders, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) said in a decision published on Thursday.

The decision was made in light of "unreasonably low" forecast revenues, profits and sales volumes for Zaharni Zavodi as well as the lack of proper justification for a significant and unusual reduction of the company's interest debt, the regulator noted.

Last week, Zahar Invest, which owns some 10.45 million shares equivalent to a stake of 94.071% in Zaharni Zavodi, increased to 6.29 levs ($3.52/3.22 euro) per share from 5.15 levs per share its proposal to acquire the remaining 5.929% it does not yet own in the sugar and ethanol producer.

In July, the FSC suspended Zahar Invest's initial buyout proposal for similar reasons.

Shares in Zaharni Zavodi closed 0.83% lower at 6.05 levs on the BaSE market of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on Friday.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)