Bulgaria's highest court has cleared Advent International's route to buying the Bulgarian Telecom Company (BTC) in a $1.1bn (€970m) deal after repeated government attempts to block it.

A five-judge Court of Appeal at the country's Supreme Administrative Court upheld a ruling, made last month, that threw out the government's attempt to dismiss the offer. Chris Mruck, a partner at Advent International, said: "The decision confirms that the privatisation followed a due and fair process and we were the fair winner. I hope and expect that in the next 15 days the Privatisation Agency will sign the deal with us."