The real estate department of Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) will become a separate company from October 1.
BTCs new owner AIG Global Investment Group (AIG) announced this, adding that the new company will also be in charge of BTC investment projects.
While Martin Staub will remain as chief executive, BTC is set for complete restructuring.
In a media statement, the company said that BTCs organisational restructuring would bring it nearer to its clients. The re-organisation was a result of a profound analysis of the companys activities, prepared by its managing team, according to the media statement. AIG supported the new structure and the BTC Group managing board approved it.
The integration process will continue to March 2008, although the new organisational structure comes into effect as of October 1 2007.
Moreover, BTC announced the forthcoming managing structure would not result in a change to the number of employees.
The new structure proves that we believe in the successful Bulgarian managers who are part of the managing team, Staub said. In this way, we once again demonstrate our confidence that it is exactly they who can manage the company in the best way.
According to the BTC statement, the company will embark on improved management of activities not connected to the telecommunications business.
From October 1, a new department dealing with BTC Group investment projects will be set up. It will bring together all activities not directly connected to telecommunications. Richard Kleg will head the department, which will contain the radio and TV national administration, international call centres and real estate, as well as the joint project with Bedminister, the Golden Pages.
Meanwhile, on September 24 Bulgarian daily Dnevnik reported that the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) had temporarily suspended the commercial proposal for acquisition of the shares of BTC minority stakeholders. This was proposed by NEF Telecomm Bulgaria (NEFTB), part of AIG, the new owner of BTC.
The commission said that there were many errors and discrepancies in the legal provisions of the proposal, and it took issue with the low price that the majority owner was offering to minority shareholders in order to acquire the rest of the company.
NEFTB, represented by AIG, acquired in August 2007 90 per cent of BTC capital. The company paid 2.8 billion leva to Viva Ventures, or 10.70 leva a share. Later on, the new owner started de-listing BTC from the public register and offered to buy out other shareholders a price of 10.73 leva a share.
The FSC found basic defects in the NEFTB commercial offer. These included neglecting the privileged status of the state, as represented by the Transport Ministry, a lack of clarity on the financial offer, a lack of development plans for BTC and problems in the methods used to come up with the price offer. Furthermore, the FSC said NEFTB had to exclude the state share in BTC from the shares that were subject to the proposal. The Bulgarian state owns a golden share in BTC, which gives it preferential rights. According to market analysts, this fact requires separate agreement on the acquisition price.
Furthermore, the FSC requires that the two bourse deals through which NEFTB acquired the majority share of BTC should be excluded from the basis on which the offered price was calculated.
The FSC said that the two deals that opened the way for the second sale of BTC were of the all or nothing type. According to experts in the field, such commissions were usually not accepted even though bourse regulations say that they are acceptable.
The FSC said that the two deals had been obstacles to other investors taking part even if they had offered a price higher than 10.70 leva a share.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin announced that Viva Ventures, the former BTC owner, had not yet given information to the Post-Privatisation Control Agency (PPCA) on the BTC sale. After this information is received, there is a requirement that the PPCA and Viva Ventures agree on the exact amount due.
