Two business players from Varna compete for the acquisition of Bulgarian American Credit Bank (BACB), a 49.99% stake of which has been offered for sale for several months, the Standart daily informs. One of the candidates is Central Cooperative Bank (CCB), owned by Chimimport, part of Varna’s business group TIM. The company’s interest towards bank stakes became clear last year, when it acquired the majority share at Teximbank.
The other candidate that announced it had already extended an offer for the acquisition of the majority stake at BACB is Expat Capital, owned by former Economy Minister Nikolay Vasilev. Vasilev stated that the Expat Group had very serious intentions of acquiring the BACB stake.
In order to meet the Bulgarian National Bank’s (BNB) requirements the Expat Group raised its capital by attracting construction company Eurobuild with BGN 12 million. Bankers commented that the BNB might not allow the deal, as it did not have a positive attitude towards non-bank companies buying banks.