The Turkish mobile company Turkcell has issued a statement denying reports that it decided to bid $1.4 billion (€1.06 billion) for the Bulgarian telco Vivacom (BTC).
Instead, it says that its evaluations continue, with no decision having yet been taken by the company’s board of directors.
According to Novinite, bids for Vivacom, whose interests include a DTH platform named Vivacom TV, have already been received from Tsevetan Vassilev, the head of Bulgaria’s Corporate Commercial Bank; the Icelandic businessman Thor Bjorgolfsson; and the London-based private equity form Pamplona Capital Management.
Telekom Austria, which already has presence in Bulgaria through Mobiltel, is believed to be out of the running.
Vivacom has had a number of ownership changes in the last few years and was last year closely linked with Oger Telecom.
It is currently backed by the Hong Kong entrepreneur Richard Li.