The private equity firm Equest announced yesterday that it will delay the planned acquisition of three local companies holding long-term concessions for waste collection in the capital city Sofia due to statements from members of the city council for scrapping the line concession contracts. The local management of Equest, which is raising capital on the London stock exchange to finance acquisitions in Bulgaria and Romania, explained that it has sent a request to PM Sergey Stanishev to take a stance on the case as the statements against the waste collection concessions are coming from representatives of the senior ruling partner BSP. Equest has signed a preliminary deal for full-scale acquisition of the three concessionaires at the end of last year and has wired an advance payment of EUR 5mn to their local owner. The total price of the three takeovers is rumoured at some EUR 50mn. The deal has been scheduled for completion by the middle of this month. However, the private equity firm vows to scrap the draft contract if the line concession arrangements were not confirmed and to start legal proceedings against the municipality of Sofia.