No Sale for Years And Then Two Come Along at Once

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 09/13/2011

Bulgaria's competition watchdog has said that it will have to check whether any resale of Bulgartabac would result in the new owner's taking a monopoly position on the Bulgarian market, according to a Novinite story. Stories have been circulating about a resale even though the initial privatization and sale of Bulgartabac is not supposed to be finalized until Thursday. In part, the reason for this is that there was only one bidder for the former Bulgarian monopoly, Austria-based BT Invest, which is owned by the Russia bank, VTB, and which offered €100,000 above the minimum price of €100 million for a 79.8 per cent share. Currently, the betting is on BT Invest selling Bulgartabac piecemeal to strategic investors, rather than in one lump. Enditem