US private equity firm Advent's leaders will consider filing a complaint at international court over the scrapped EUR 210 M sale of a 65-percent Stake in the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, Bulgaria's Darik radio said Friday.

Advent leaders claimed that there were political interests behind the decision of the Supervisory Council of Bulgaria's Privatisation Agency to scrap the deal.

Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court initiated May 20th legal proceedings after Viva Ventures filed a complaint over the Agency's decision.

We will raise our bid to EUR 280 M if court would let us back into the deal, company leaders said.

Viva Ventures, the Austria-registered consortium, owned by investment fund Advent, sent a letter to the Privatization Agency on Thursday, stating it is ready to consider a bid of EUR 280 M. Bulgaria's sale body confirmed it has received such a letter, but declined to comment. The new bid includes EUR 50 M offered by Viva Ventures as a capital boost investment in addition to their initial bid.

In the tender for Bulgaria's telecoms operator Turkish consortium Koc Holding/ Turk Telekom offered EUR 185 M but had envisaged fewer staff cuts than Advent.