Bulgaria's Inercom Seeks Regulatory Nod to Acquire Local Assets of CEZ
Bulgaria's competition authority said on Tuesday it has received a request from Sofia-based Inercom to approve the purchase of seven local companies owned by Czech energy company CEZ Group. The assets of CEZ which Inercom wants to acquire are power distributor CEZ Razpredelenie [BUL:3CZ], power supplier CEZ Electro Bulgaria [BUL:1CZ], licensed electricity trader CEZ Trade Bulgaria, IT services company CEZ ICT Bulgaria, solar park Free Energy Project Oreshetz, biomass-fired power plant Bara Group and CEZ Bulgaria, according to a notice published on the website of the Commission for Protection of Competition. The price of the transaction is 326 million euro ($380.8 million), according to CEZ Group's annual financial statement published in March. The contract between CEZ Group and Inercom was signed on February 23. The deal raised concerns about Inercom's ability to finance the acquisition, which resulted in the establishment of a parliamentary ad hoc committee with the purpose of looking into the deal.