Turkeys leading mobile operator Turkcell informed the Istanbul stock exchange that it had placed a preliminary bid in the private tender being held for the 65 per cent stake in the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), IntelliNews reported on March 30.
The stake amounts to about 1.2 billion euro and is indirectly owned by Icelands investment group Novator. The bidding is expected to continue until the end of April. As previously reported by The Sofia Echo, there are five more bidders interested in Novators BTC stake Turk Telekom, Texas Pacific Group, Providence Equity Partner, Warbung Pincus and Mid-Europe Partners.
Novators interest in BTC is represented by Novator Telecom Bulgaria, which has a call option for taking over 65 per cent of BTC from the private equity firm Viva Ventures. The call option could be exercised in June 2007 at the earliest three years after the privatisation of 65 per cent of BTC. The market capitalisation of BTC stands at about 1.9 billion euro at present. BTC is also the full owner of the third cell-phone operator in Bulgaria Vivatel, which launched operations in November 2005 and holds a market share of about eight per cent.
On March 30, Bulgarian-language daily Pari reported that Turkcell had obtained $3 billion from international banks to fund its expansion outside Turkey. The funding will also be used for the BTC acquisition after Turkcells bid to get Saudi Arabias third mobile licence failed last week.
The two major rivals for the acquisition of BTC will be Turkcell and US investment fund Mid Europa Partners, according to Pari.
Thor Bjorgolfsson stands to make a two billion euro profit from the sale of his 90 percent stake in BTC, according to forecasts.
Meanwhile, BTC announced that clients of the new plans BTC at Home will receive up to 350 minutes for intercity and international calls starting at April 1. With this campaign the company is reducing the number of its plans. Instead of seven, BTC will now be offering four types of plans with more minutes included. The new plans are called BTC at Home 50, 150, 250 and 350.
