Mergermarket: New Sale of Telenor Bulgaria Contemplated

The Bulgarian telecom operator Telenor may change ownership again, just two years after the Czech group PPF owned by Petr Kellner purchased the company. This was featured in Mergermarket, a specialized merger and acquisition information platform, citing anonymous industry directors as sources, as reported by Capital. According to the information, PPF is looking for an exit from all telecoms it acquired from the Norwegian group Telenor in 2018 - in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary, and the reason is to save costs on the development of the 5G network on a number of markets.

According to the publication, several candidates are interested in the Bulgarian telecom. So far, there is no procedure announced, not even the so-called "teaser" preceding every major deal. However, Kellner has informally mentioned a sale, and the American Providence Equity fund has demonstrated interest in Telenor Bulgaria. It also submitted an offer for BTC a year ago. Informally, Kiril Domuschiev was pointed out as its local partner.

A spokesman for PPF told Mergermarket that it had no plans to sell. Kellner's holding is also in the process of acquiring bTV.

PPF bought telecoms from Norway's Telenor in four countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia, with their branding still remaining unchanged, although two months ago marketing materials leaked, according to which a rebranding with the name Laa is under preparation. The deal was completed in 2018 and was worth a total of 2.8 billion euros, and the Bulgarian business, according to Capital's calculations, was estimated at about 800 million euros.

In October last year, PPF sold 25% of its Hungarian business to Antenna Hungaria for an unknown amount. Antenna Hungaria is controlled by the state-owned...