United Group has issued an official response to Yettel Bulgaria’s request to the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) to ban its acquisition of Bulsatcom key assets.
In a statement, it said: “We find Yettel Bulgaria’s request to the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission to combine the procedure investigating the acquisition of Bulsatcom by Viva Corporate with a procedure related to Slovenia Broadband ungrounded, unjustified and absurd.
“Yettel is asking the Bulgarian regulator to combine one investigative procedure where the counter-party is Viva Corporate with one regulatory concentration procedure where the applicant is Slovenia Broadband. These are two different type of procedures with different types of participants acting in different legal capacities. The procedure reviewing Slovenia Broadband’s notification is with respect to the acquisition/lease-back of some of Bulsatcom’s assets.
“We believe that the only purpose of Yettel Bulgaria’s request is to derail the process in order to delay and complicate the decision-making procedure regarding the notification submitted by United Group. Furthermore, with these actions Yettel is only targeting to harm United Group business in Bulgaria.
“It is worth noting that Yettel Bulgaria is demanding that CPC breaks the laws of Bulgaria to protect their own interests. Before the arrival of UG on the market, Yettel focused on enjoying high profits and didn’t invest in the development of their business. Suddenly now, after UG entered the market and created a competitive environment, Yettel appeared to have many objections to our operations and activities.
“It will be illegal for the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission to accept Yettel Bulgaria’s request but should that happen, we will defend our interests in court”.
Yettel Bulgaria is part of PPF Group.
Broadband TV News notes that reports say A1 Bulgaria has also asked the CPC to look into United Group’s proposed acquisition.
