Bulgarian telecom BTC has received an approval from the English High Court to proceed with its debt restructuring plans, Reuters reported. Following the acquisition of 73% in the telecom by Russia's VTB Bank and Bulgarian lender CCB, the new owners will pay EUR 130mn to the senior creditors, which will be used to partially repay the company's debt to EUR 588m. The restructuring terms were approved by 90% of the telecom's lenders. The deal is expected to be completed during Q4 2012. Senior lenders, (RBS, Deutsche Bank, UBS and UniCredit), will keep 21% in the company, while junior lenders will also obtain options in the company's shares, but will write down their debt claims.
In the beginning of August, the senior creditors of BTC approved the offer of VTB Bank, in partnership with local businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, CEO of country's seventh largest in terms of assets lender CCB, for their majority stake in the operator. Three other investors competed for the purchase of BTC - Turkey's cell-phone operator Turkcell, a company related to Iceland's billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson, who sold majority stake in BTC to AIG Capital Partners in 2007, and a company from the Pamplona Group.