13.4.2007

Princes and Tycoons after the Purchase of BTC

Two Turkish companies offer 1.65 and 1.95 billion euro for the company - Arab princes and Russian tycoons are leading the battle for the purchase of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC). Oger Telecom, one of the new breed of acquisitive Middle East telecommunications groups, and Turkcell, Turkey's largest mobile operator, are running neck and neck in the auction for control of Bulgaria's leading fixed-line phone company, writes the Financial Times. The two Turkish companies are controlled by a Saudi royal family and Russian oligarchs.

Turkcell announced officially its interest towards BTC a week ago. Owners of the Turkish GSM operator are the Norwegian-Finnish Sonera and the Russian Alpha Group. The latter is owned by Mikhail Friedman, one of the richest people in the world with his fortune estimated at around 13 billion USD.

The other participant in the tender Turk Telecom is owned by he Dubai based Oger Telecom. Oger's control stock is owned by Saudi Oger - the conglomerate founded by Lebanon's ex-Premier Rafic Hariri who was assassinated in 2005.
The investment funds Mid Europa Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus have also entered the bidding. The offers varied between 1.65 and 1.95 billion euro, reads the article of the FT. People close to the tender think that Oger Telecom and Turkcell might have the edge as an agreement for a merger between the Turkish GSM operators and the Bulgarian GSM operator owned by BTC could be reached, writes the FT.

A few months ago the Iceland billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson announced that he was thinking of selling his option for the purchase of 65% of the stock of the BTC. Lehan Brothers has been chosen for advisor on the deal.

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