The biggest telecommunications company in Bulgaria, BTK, is now officially owned by businessman Spas Rusev as the deal was finalized on August 30, Capital newspaper says, citing three different sources.

The London-based entrepreneur offered earlier this year EUR 330 M for BTK, whose services include landlines, Internet, TV and mobile communications (the latter under the brand of Vivacom). It also owns NURTS, the leading provider of radio and television broadcasting and signal transmissions which has been providing digital terrestrial television to most of Bulgaria.

Also on August 30, in a parallel development, Rusev announced he had become the new owner of one of Bulgaria's best-known professional football clubs, Levski Sofia.

BTK's revenues last year reached BGN 865 M (EUR 443.1 M).

BTK (Vivacom) was sold in mid-November, after a marathon bidding, to Rusev, a Bulgarian businessman who owns newly-established, Luxembourg-based Viva Telecom. Apart from paying EUR 330 M for the company, Rusev also agreed to pay off its debts at EUR 400 M.

The sale process follows the non-payment of a EUR 150 M loan to Luxembourg-based Investment S.a.r.l (InterV), the indirect holding company of BTC EAD (Vivacom).

Russian VTB bank's London-based investment arm, VTB Capital, which was a security agent for the loan, was the seller.

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