[Intl-tobacco] Bulgaria: Government announces majority sale of its tobacco company

[Robert Weissman]

Government announces majority sale of its tobacco company

By Associated Press, 3/10/2003 12:54

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) The government decided Monday to sell a majority
stake in the state-owned tobacco company for 110 million euros ($120
million) to a consortium controlled by Germany's Deutsche Bank.

The government decision needs approval from parliament. It was not
immediately announced when the legislators' vote would take place.

The state-owned Bulgartabac Holding will be sold to Sofia-based Tobacco
Capital Partners and Dutch-registered Clar Innis, which made a cash
offer for 80 percent of the company's assets.

The consortium already had won the auction for Bulgartabac last year,
but the closing of the deal was delayed because the Supreme
Administrative Court annulled the transaction after complaints were
filed by the losing bidders two Russian and an Austrian consortiums.

Parliament since passed a government-sponsored law which took away the
court's powers to control 15 major key privatization deals, including
the one involving Bulgartabac, giving complete control over the sale of
the companies to the government and parliament.