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The European Commission has authorized the acquisition of Telenor Group mobile units in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro from the Czech PPF Group investment fund. The agreement was announced early in the year and had to pbad the approval of the anti – monopoly regulators in Brussels to finalize. The reason is that the acquisition affects a number of companies in several markets of the Old Continent, which required an intervention of the EC. At the end of March, Norwegian giant Telenor announced that it was pulling out of Eastern Europe and selling its badets to Czech fund PPF Group, owned by billionaire Petr Keller. The transaction is 2.8 billion euros. Thus, the second largest mobile operator in Bulgaria by the number of subscribers is officially new owner
The Brussels decision
The EC view is that the transaction does not raise concerns about the distortion of competition in the country telecommunications sector. Firstly, there will be no horizontal overlap, as companies on both sides of the transaction operate on their respective territories (Telenor – Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro, and telecom PPC badets). -O2 in the Czech Republic). Secondly, their influence at the supranational level is not sufficient to lead to a concentration and potential distortion of wholesale and roaming prices
The great ambitions and the Bulgarian regulator
PPF and Petr Kellner have ambitious projects for Bulgaria, that they will also acquire the Nova media group for 185 million euros in cash. In this way, the Czech billionaire will have a powerful telecom player and one of the largest media and advertising companies in the country. The last agreement was suspended by the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) on the grounds that the Bulgarian group has an excessive share of the television and advertising markets. The development of this decision as well as the attractiveness of Petr Klener and PPF should be known in the coming weeks
The Bulgarian stable operator
The Bulgarian group Telenor – Telenor Bulgaria announces good financial results for the second quarter year. The mobile operator said an increase in revenues of BGN 163 million compared to the same period in 2017 to BGN 175 million this year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased from BGN 63 million to BGN 68 million annually. Another important indicator – average monthly revenue per subscriber (ARPU) steadily increases from 13.5 to 14.9 leva
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