PPF considering purchase of United Group

PPF, the biggest Czech private financial group, is interested in more acquisitions in Southeastern Europe, potentially including the regional telecom assets of Netherland-headquartered United Group, controlled by BC Partners private equity fund and Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak.

– There are certainly several assets there that fit well into the topology of our business in this part of Europe – CEO Jiri Smejc said in an interview with Reuters.

United Group, which has annual revenue of EUR 2.9 billion, says it is the leading multi-play telecoms, cable and media provider in South East Europe. It operates mainly in Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece, reports the media house bne IntelliNews.

Reuters noted that “United Group’s telecoms assets in southeastern Europe have been put up for potential sale”, quoting a source with knowledge of the matter.

Smejc said that “we have told ourselves we would look at it but at the moment the situation seems a little bit unclear, which direction it will go.”

BC Partners did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.

In 2021, bne IntelliNews writes, PPF was criticized for striking a deal with Telekom Serbia that appeared designed to give the majority-state-owned Serbian telco an upper hand in its bitter rivalry with United Group. Telekom Serbia, critics argue, is backed by the Serbian ruling SNS party of president Aleksandar Vucic. PPF denied the criticism of the deal with Telekom Serbia and accused United Group of orchestrating “a smear campaign” against PPF, writes bne IntelliNews.

Let us remind that PPF recently sold over 50% of the shares of its companies in Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia, among which is the telecommunications operator Yettel, to Emirates Telecommunication Group Company ("e&") from Abu Dhabi. The transaction is worth EUR 2.15 billion.

It is also interesting that, six years ago, right around the time when PPF acquired Telenor (later Yettel) in Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria, this Czech group was mentioned as a potential buyer of United Group.

In Serbia, the cable operator SBB, as well as the TV stations and portals N1, Nova and Sport Klub operate within United Group.

B. P.

United Grupa BROADBAND INVESTMENT S.à r.l.

UG. UNITED GROUP INC Beograd

Telekom Srbija a.d. Beograd

SBB d.o.o. Beograd

PPF Group

United Group

Telekom Srbija

SBB

N1

Nova

Sport klub

BC Partners

Jiri Smejc

Dragan Solak

sale

purchase

acquisition