Schoenherr's Sofia office has advised private equity fund EQT V on the sale of the cable operator blizoo Bulgaria to the Vienna Stock Exchange-listed company Telekom Austria Group. The transaction, which was signed on 29 July 2015, is subject to the relevant merger control approvals. As agreed between the parties, details regarding the purchase price will not be released.

blizoo is a market leading cable TV network operator in Bulgaria which offers analog/digital cable TV, broadband and fixed line telephony services. blizoo operates in the majority of large cities in Bulgaria and has a subscriber base of approximately 373,000. blizoo is headquartered in Sofia and has approximately 1,200 employees.

EQT is a leading private equity group in Europe, with portfolio companies across Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 17 billion and approximately 140,000 employees. Telekom Austria Group is a leading communications provider in Central and Eastern Europe, with almost 23 million customers across its eight markets of operations.

The Schoenherr team advising EQT was led by Ilko Stoyanov (partner, Sofia) and also consisted of Katerina Kaloyanova (attorney at law) and Georgi Tsonchev (attorney at law). EQT was also advised by Hogan Lovells on English law matters, by UniCredit as an investment bank, and by Deloitte on financial and tax matters. CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz served as legal counsel to Telekom Austria Group.

Schoenherr has been involved in some of the biggest M&A deals in Bulgaria over the past few years. The firm advised Telenor on its acquisition of Globul, Bulgaria’s second-largest mobile carrier; VTB Capital and Corporate Commercial Bank on their joint acquisition of a majority share in the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company AD (known under its brand name "Vivacom"); VTB Capital on Bulgartabac's privatisation; as well as Germany’s FUNKE Mediengruppe (previously WAZ Media Group) on the sale of the Bulgarian daily newspapers "Trud" and "24 Chasa" and the weekly "168 Chasa" to BG Printmedia and a group of private investors. Schoenherr also advised the private equity group Advent International on its acquisition and restructuring of Bulgaria's leading ceramic tile producer, KAI Group.