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US Advent to appeal against Bulgaria BTC ruling14/05/2003. Source: AltAssets. 
 US private equity firm Advent is to take an appeal to the Bulgarian supreme court after the state privatisation agency's supervisory board blocked its E210m landmark acquisition of Bulgaria's state telecom firm BTC.
Advent has condemned the decision, made in favour of a Turkish consortium led by leading industrial conglomerate Koc Holding, as politically motivated, according to a report by Reuters.
The Privatisation Agency has cited legal inconsistencies in a preliminary deal signed in March as the reason for the embargo, but analysts fear that the sale setback may undermine the government's credibility among foreign investors and damage the European Union aspirant's formative private equity market.
‘We were surprised and shocked to hear that the Privatisation Agency had announced a decision to terminate talks with Advent,' said Advent international director Christian Mruck.
‘We are hoping for a quick ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court, which would restore us as a BTC buyer. We are feeling in complete right to finalise the transaction,' he continued.
Local media has consistently reported since April that there could be a political decision to switch sale talks to the Turkish group as a means of pleasing the government's coalition partner, the ethnic Turks' MRF party, on which it depends for its fragile ethnic majority.
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