October 20 (SeeNews) - French courier services group Geopost could complete the acquisition of a further 45% stake in Bulgarian express delivery company Speedy [BUL:0SP] in the middle of 2021 if it decides to exercise its call option, local media reported.
Part of the procedures related to the exercising of the call option are currently under way, local business news outlet Capital.bg quoted Speedy board member Danail Danailov as saying on Monday.
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Bulgaria's Speedy Group owned 65.09% interest in Speedy at the end of June, while GeoPost held 24.81%, according to the latest available data.
In August, Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said that GeoPost is seeking its approval to become majority owner of Speedy.
In June, Speedy said that Speedy Group has agreed to extend the deadline for exercising a call option for a 45% stake in Speedy held by France's GeoPost to January 31, 2021. The change was dictated by administrative hurdles created by the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2014, Speedy acquired GeoPost's units in Romania and Bulgaria – DPD Romania and GeoPost Bulgaria, while Geopost agreed to acquire 25% of Speedy with the option to increase its stake to 70% by 2020.
Speedy's consolidated net profit grew to 12.2 million levs ($7.3 million/6.2 million euro) in the first half of 2020 from 7.4 million levs in the same period of 2019, as its revenue increased to 127.8 million levs from 107.3 million levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)