BULGARIAN PENSION FUND BIDDER SAYS IT WILL SOON FILE FOR APPROVAL

United Capital, the UK-registered company about which virtually nothing is known, has said that it plans soon to file for regulatory approvals with the Bulgarian authorities to buy a 92.58% stake in Bulgarian pension provider Doverie from Vienna Insurance Group. It also said that it intended to keep the current management. However, the management board of the pension fund, which has almost $1.2bn under management, had already announced its resignation in protest at the proposed sale. United Capital emailed Reuters from Vienna, stating that it was a holding entity and that the company and its affiliates managed assets of more than €2bn ($2.65bn). United Capital said in the statement that one of its key investors was Sergei Mastyugin, a member of the supervisory board of Russia's Investbank. Deborah Sturman, United Capital's chairing director and an international lawyer, said that "United Capital will soon present the materials required by the Bulgarian regulatory authorities for the implementation of the transaction pursuant to the signed share purchase agreement", and that the funding would be provided purely by United Capital's shareholders. One of these was said in the statement to be LJ Capital, which was claimed to have significantly increased its interest in the bidding entity. LJ Capital is "an independent and privately-held merchant bank and investment house with more than $5bn of assets under supervision". It was reported by the Financial Times in 2011 to be backed by "Guggenheim family money" and was founded by twins Ed and Harry Lawson Johnston. Bulgaria's prime minister Plamen Oresharski has promised that the government was looking closely at the deal, with the pensions of 1.25m Bulgarians involved. "I understand it as finalizing the initial negotiations and the documents are yet to be filed at the Financial Supervision Commission", he said, adding that he was keeping in close touch with the commission chairman Mr Mavrodiev. "I convinced him that the commission may command the assistance of the State Agency for National Security too, so as the final result to be a transparent decision and an owner, who will take good care of people’s savings for pensions", the prime minister said.