The shareholders of the country’s major landline telecom BTC approved the full integration of its wireless arm BTC Mobile, traded as vivatel, in a bid to cut administrative costs and improve management. BTC is almost fully owned by AIG Capital Partners. It has owned the full stake in its wireless arm by now and the integration is a formal process that will not have a big impact on the market capitalisation of the company standing at BGN 1.44bn (EUR 736.3mn) at present. The company will remove the brand name vivatel of its cell-phone network so that all products are linked to a single provider. It will also continue to cut the staff from about 10,000 to less than 5,000 in about three years and will sell out a large number of buildings, including the main one in the downtown of Sofia .

The net profit of BTC shrank 24% y/y to BGN 106mn in H1 non-consolidated terms. The consolidated profit of the company, which includes the financial results of BTC Mobile, plunged at a steeper rate of 58% y/y to BGN 30.1mn on flat sales of BGN 508.9mn. The large losses generated by the wireless business of the group are due to its early phase of development. vivatel holds about 10% of the local market for wireless telecom services.