IP/07/1189
Brussels, 27th July 2007
Mergers: Commission clears proposed acquisition of Bulgarian Telecommunications Company by AIG Capital Partners
The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of Bulgarian Telecommunications Company by AIG Capital Partners. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
AIG Capital Partners provides investment advice and market asset management products and services on an international basis. Its parent company AIG offers a wide range of insurance products. Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) operates a fixed and mobile data and other telecommunication networks and data systems in Bulgaria.
As AIG Capital Partners does not have any telecommunications operations in its portfolio in the EEA and BTC is only active in the telecom sector, the proposed transaction would create no overlaps between the parties' activities.
Accordingly, no competition concerns would arise as a consequence of the proposed transaction.
The Commission received a request for a referral of this case under the EU
Merger Regulation from the Bulgarian Competition Authority, but decided to deal
with the case itself.
More information on the case will be available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m94.html#m_4721
