* Price for whole of bTV around 500 mln euros
* Deal expected after Feb. 1
* bTV says in talks with suitors
* CME, News Corp decline comment
(Adds details, share price, analyst comment)
By Anna Mudeva
SOFIA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Television group Central European
Media Enterprises (CME) <CETV.O> <> is close to signing
a deal to buy News Corp's <NWSA.O> Bulgarian broadcaster bTV for
about 500 million euros ($704.5 million), a source familiar with
the matter said.
The Sofia-based source, who is close to the talks, told
Reuters on Tuesday the deal for the whole of bTV was likely to
be announced in the weeks after Feb. 1.
"The deal is about to be finalised," the source told
Reuters. "We're talking around 500 million."
The price is much less than 500 million euros that,
according to Bulgarian media reports in September 2009,
News Corp had sought from CME for only 55 percent of the
station.
Advertising spending has fallen sharply in the global
downturn.
A spokeswoman for bTV, Bulgaria's most watched station, with
a market share of over 38 percent in December, declined to
comment, but confirmed the company was in talks with potential
suitors.
"We have no information at this stage and I cannot comment,"
bTV's communications director Petya Terzieva said. "bTV has been
talking to a number of companies and many show interest."
CME has TV stations in several central and eastern European
markets, but has agreed to sell its Ukraine assets for $300
million earlier this month as part of a divestment programme.
Its biggest station is Nova in the Czech Republic, where the
company also has a secondary listing in addition to the Nasdaq.
Romana Tomasova, vice president of corporate communications
at CME, also declined to comment on a bTV deal.
Tomasova added that CME was looking at various options in
Bulgaria after acquiring an 80 percent stake in two Bulgarian
television stations for $172 million in July 2008.
"In Bulgaria we are evaluating several options," she told
Reuters. "They may involve kinds of joint venture, merger,
acquisition or just keep developing the stations as they are."
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in London declined comment.
News Corp has long sought to divest non-core assets and has
said that in Europe and Asia it would focus on India, pay TV in
western Europe, and rebuilding its newspaper business.
In eastern Europe, it still owns television assets in
Latvia, and radio and outdoor advertising in Russia. News Corp
agreed to sell its 49 percent stake in Serbian TV operator Fox
Televizija to Greek media group Antenna last
month.[]
Analyst Patrick Vyroubal of Czech brokerage said CME should
focus on paying down its debt, but noted it was positive that,
unlike the Ukrainian business, bTV was profit-making.
"It would be better for CME to repay a part of debt than to
finance new acquisitions," he said. "On the other hand, a new
acquisition could create some value in the long-term, therefore
if the price is justifiable, then in future it could be a good
deal."
CME shares dropped 1.3 percent on Nasdaq after the news to
$31.02. The news came after the close of the Prague Stock
Exchange.
If it goes through, the bTV deal would be the third major
deal in the Bulgarian media market in the past two years, after
CME bought cable networks TV2 and Ring TV and Swedish Modern
Times Group <MTGb.ST> bought Nova TV for 620 million euros.
(Reporting by Anna Mudeva; Jason Hovet in Prague and Georgina
Prodhan in London, editing by Will Waterman and Rupert
Winchester)
