May 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority granted approval to local company Recocycling to acquire former battery manufacturer EnerSys AD based in the northeastern city of Targovishte.
A market analysis of the transaction was not required as the combined turnover of the parties to the deal on the Bulgarian market did not exceed 25 million levs ($15.5 million/12.8 million euro) last year, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in its decision published earlier this week.
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After the completion of the deal, EnerSys AD will no longer operate in the same field it was active in prior to the acquisition, the CPC added.
In 2019, the board of directors of US-based industrial battery manufacturer EnerSys approved a plan to shut down its Targovishte plant for manufacture of batteries for diesel-electric submarines. The management decided that future demand for batteries of diesel-electric submarines was not sufficient given the existing number of competitors in the market, the US company said at the time, adding that it intended to sell or transfer the plant and possibly the equipment to other parties if possible.
According to the most recent financial statement of EnerSys AD available from the commercial register, the company recorded a net loss of some 8 million levs in 2019, compared to a net loss of close to 15.6 million levs in 2018. The financial statement also showed that at the end of 2019, EnerSys Holdings (Luxembourg) Sarl, part of EnerSys, held a 99.79% stake in EnerSys AD.
The CPC's decision can be challenged by interested parties before Sofia Region Administrative Court by May 25.
Recocycling, based in Dolna Banya, near Sofia, is part of a group of companies owned by private individual Dimitar Popov, which are active in different markets in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)