SOFIA (Reuters) - A Luxembourg-registered group has bought company stakes owned by fugitive Bulgarian tycoon Tsvetan Vassilev, including in Bulgaria's leading telecoms firm, and will refinance their debt worth about 900 million euros (661 million pounds), the group said on Tuesday.
LIC33 Group, a private capital investment company set up specifically for these transactions, said it acquired a 43.3 percent stake Vassilev held indirectly in Vivacom, the Balkan country's biggest telecoms operator by revenue.
Vassilev was at the centre of a banking crisis last year when Corporate Commercial Bank (BB:6C9), which he majority owned, was hit by a run on deposits and shut down.
Vassilev was subsequently charged with embezzlement and is awaiting the outcome of extradition hearings in neighbouring Serbia.
"We do share a common desire to see debts repaid and for workers to remain employed at this entities," the group said in a written presentation at a news conference in Sofia.
A spokesman for the group had previously told Reuters the stakes had been bought for 1 euro.