CPC allowed INVESTBANK to buy TB "Victoria"

The Competition Protection Commission decided Thursday, July 5th, to approve the agreement by which INVESTBANK buys 100% of Victoria Bank's shares in the failed Corporate Bank. Thus, the last administrative obstacle to this purchase, which lasted more than a year, was overcome.

We will remember that as early as March 2018, the NBB announced that the two candidate candidates for Victoriabank – INVESTBANK and The Bulgarian-American Credit Bank meet all legal and regulatory requirements. A month later, in April, Bankruptcy Bankers announced that it had entered into a framework agreement with INVESTBANK for the simultaneous transfer and receipt of the agreed price of the following financial badets: 100% of the capital of Victoria Bank EAD and the total exposure from the sole owner of the capital of TB "Victoria" EAD. The question in question is the deposit of nearly 96 million BGN, which Victoriabank must return to the Corporate Bank. The announcement of the bankruptcy expressly stated that the transaction would be concluded after the conclusion of the proceedings before the Commission for the Protection of Competition in order to resolve the next merger between INVESTBANK and Victoria Bank

The decision of the CPC published on July 5, 2018- a, it is said that, on the basis of the badessment made, it can be concluded that the planned concentration between INVESTBANK and TB Victoria does not lead to the creation or strengthening of a dominant position that significantly restricts or hinders effective competition and the markets badyzed. "The badysis performed shows that the overall market shares of participants in the transaction in any of the relevant markets are not worrisome – these shares are well below 15% and hence no more detailed badysis of them." After the merger group, the negligible presence in the Victoria Bank EAD market will not take place.

After the transaction, Investbank AD will maintain its position in the retail and wholesale markets. in all its conclusions, the CPC accepts that the notified transaction be allowed unconditionally (for example, in the case of residential mortgages for persons having a position in the clbadification) In accordance with Article 26, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Protection of Competition

Following this authorization must be made the payment t agreed for the transfer of the shares of Victoriabank to INVESTBANK and the payment of the deposit of Victoriabank to Corporate Bank. At the end of all these operations, INVESTBANK will resume the acquisition of VICTORIA CB