The three member jury of the Supreme administrative court (SAC) ruled the cabinet decision to select the Turk Telecom – Koc Holding consortium as the winning bidder in the BTC sale procedure void. The cabinet decision was made May 10th after the Privatization Agency (PA) rejected the Austria registered consortium Viva Ventures on May 7th. The case was filed after all other lawsuits on the Viva Ventures rejection were closed. The last one was ruled Septemeber 24th. A 5-member SAC jury said that a presumed approval is at hand effective of August 15 as to Viva Ventures being the buyer of the 65% stake in the capital of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC). In yesterday’s rule the magistrates explain why the cabinet has no competences to issue decisions regarding the BTC sale which in turn rules the selection of the Turkish Consortium void. The amendments to the telecommunications act which were specially drafted to allow the council of ministers make decisions on who is the best bidder in a tender, are not applicable, since the decision on selling BTC and the decision to select Viva Ventures as the buyer were made before the draft amendments were enacted. The former one was mad April 4th 2002 and the latter was made October 23rd 2002. The privatization act amendments setting new sales procedures for 15 major national companies of special importance for Bulgaria’s national security, including BTC were adopted by parliament in the beginning of 2003. The SAC rule is subject to appeal before a 5-member jury within a 14-day term. Insiders comment that failure to endorse the deal with Viva Ventures at this stage will be equal to legal abuse inflicting grave damages to the state. PA declined comments explaining that the agency is not a party in the case. Joanna James, managing director in Advent International, owner of Viva Ventures commented that the SAC rule makes it clear that the last judicial hurdle for endorsing the sales contract on BTC with Viva Ventures has been nonexistent. We expect to be invited by the PA to sign the contract since neither of the parties can benefit from further delays. Representatives of the Turkish Telecom were not immediately available for comments.