Bulgaria: Eko Acquisition Given Green Light

 The watchdog ruled that the deal would not create a dominant position for the buyer and will bolster competition and business quality. Eko, part of Hellenic Petroleum of Greece, said in June it would pay €35.25m to buy Opet/Aygaz Bulgaria from Turkish company Koc Holding.

The purchase added 17 petrol stations to Eko’s network, expanding it to 75 service stations. Eko has boosted its retail sales network by 47 per cent in the space of several months, having agreed in April to acquire one of the most lucrative small filling station chains, Tempo Petrol, which added a further seven outlets to its network.

Hellenic Petroleum targets to increase its network to 400 petrol units in the long-term, from 267 at present. Eko said early in the year it would invest 150 million leva in the Bulgarian market to double the number of its petrol stations to more than 100 and reach a 10 per cent retail market share.

The acquisition left the market with five major players – locally-owned Petrol, the Bulgarian subsidiaries of Russia's Lukoil, Austria's OMV, London-headquartered Shell and Eko, whose combined sales make over 76 per cent of the total.

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