The sale of Bulgaria's first national private television bTV is the fifth biggest deal among mergers and acquisitions in Eastern Europe for the first quarter of the year, shows data of the market research company Mergermarket.

Central European Media Enterprises signed a deal for the acquisition of the national private television bTV, wholly owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, in the middle of February and completed it at the end of April.

CME paid USD 400 M in cash for 100% of the terrestrial free-to-air TV channel, bTV. The deal also included two genre channels, bTV Comedy and bTV Cinema, along with News Corporation’s 74-per-cent interest in Radio Company C.J which operates five radio stations.

The decision of German retailer Tengelmann to sell its discount retail chains in Romania and Bulgaria to its rival Lidl, which is part of Germany's Schwarz retail group, is the only other acquisition that took place in Bulgaria during the first quarter of the year. The price of the deal was not disclosed.

The next quarter saw the acquisition of Bulgarian coffee shop chain Onda Coffee by Torino-headquartered Lavazza Coffee Shops Srl (LCS) in a EUR 6 M deal.

Experts point out that in the number of acquisitions Bulgaria is lagging behind its northern neighbor Romania, where five deals were concluded during the first quarter of the year.

The acquisition of Russian oil giant Rosneft by its founder tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev for nearly EUR 4.6 B is the biggest deal in the region for this period, according to Mergermarket.