December 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said it has found that the notified acquisitions of minority stakes in thermal power plant (TPP) operators Bobov Dol [BUL:TBD] and Brikel by US-based Ultimate Energy Investment Group LLC do not constitute corporate concentration and therefore require no antitrust clearance.
Ultimate Energy plans to buy an undisclosed number of shares in Brikel TPP from its sole owner, UK-registered Bakkar Limited. With its entry in the shareholding structure of Brikel, the US company will not achieve decisive influence on Brikel’s commercial posture, the Commission on Protection of Competition said in a decision published on Tuesday.
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In parallel, Ultimate Energy intends to purchase a stake in Bobov Dol TPP from its majority owner Konsorcium Energia MK. Following the planned deal, Ultimate Energy will not obtain any special rights regarding the management of the company, the CPC said in a separate decision published on Wednesday.
TPP Bobov Dol, established in 2000, is located in Bulgaria's southwestern region of Kyustendil and has an installed capacity of 630 MW. In the first nine months of 2022, it swung to a consolidated net profit of 1.87 million levs ($1.02 million/956,115 euro) from a loss of 15 million levs in the same period last year.
TPP Brikel is located in Galabovo, in the Stara Zagora region and has previously been shut down for breaches of environment protection rules. It has six boilers with nameplate capacity of 60 MW and four turbines with a nameplate capacity of 50 MW.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)