Bulgaria's Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said that whatever the decision over the privatisation of a 65-percent stake in Bulgarian Telecommunications Company BTC it would be positive both for Bulgaria and its citizens.

He also explained that the privatisation of BTC was something very important for Bulgaria.

Earlier in the week a five-member panel of Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) overruled the decision of the of the supervisory board of the Privatisation Agency to scrap the EUR 210 M sale of a 65-percent stake in BTC to U.S. private equity fund Advent.

U.S. private equity fund Advent pledged to up its EUR 210 M bid for a 65-percent stake in BTC to EUR 230 M on condition that the Privatisation Agency renounced the so called clawback agreement.

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