BC Partners and United Group agree to sell SBB Serbia to e& / PPF Telecom, as well as Net TV Plus business and its sports broadcasting rights for Western Balkans to Telekom Srbija

United Group B.V. (“Group”), the leading telecommunications and media provider in Southeastern Europe, majority owned by BC Partners, a leading international investment firm, announces that it has reached an agreement to sell SBB doo Belgrade, a leading alternative pay TV, broadband internet and fixed telephone services provider in Serbia, to e& (Etisalat) PPF Telecom B.V. (“e&/PPF”). The Group has also agreed to sell its NetTV Plus business and its sports broadcasting rights for the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) to Telekom Srbija a.d. Beograd (“TS”).

These transactions, with a combined Enterprise Value of €1.5bln and an implied EV/2024 EBITDAal (pre IFRS 16) of 10x demonstrate United Group’s strong track record in developing market-leading operations and brands across the region over the last two decades.

In addition, as previously announced on 13th January 2025 by United Group, the company signed a non-binding agreement with BH Telekom d.d. Sarajevo (“BHT”) in relation to a potential sale of Telemach BH d.o.o. Sarajevo and Telemach Crna Gora d.o.o. Podgorica.

Following the completion of the transactions with e&/PPF, TS and BHT, United Group will have completed its strategic objective of exiting and successfully monetising its telco assets outside the EU.

Victoriya Boklag, United Group’s CEO, said: “Our Group was built on the foundation of SBB almost 24 years ago and grew into the largest telco and media company in our region. Since its inception, United Group has expanded rapidly across Southeastern Europe through successful completion of over 100 M&A transactions and has significantly strengthened its EU positioning since its first EU foray into the Slovenian market in 2009. Our expansion into fully converged and affluent EU markets of Greece, Bulgaria and Croatia has further solidified this position. Today’s divestments are in line with our strategy to sharpen our focus on the markets where we can provide the full spectrum of mobile and fixed telecommunication services to our customers, which will enable us to realize the greatest potential for growth and value creation. By streamlining our operations and refocusing on EU markets, we are enhancing our efficiency and positioning United Group for long-term success.”

Nikos Stathopoulos, Chairman, Europe, at BC Partners, said: “Our partnership with United Group is the perfect example of how we partner with visionary businesses to drive growth. Leveraging our extensive experience in the TMT sector, we have helped to transform and diversify the business from a regional operator into a major European platform. Alongside the management team, we have successfully executed a series of initiatives to open up new markets, improve operations, optimise the capital structure, and significantly invest in United Group’s tower, mobile and broadband infrastructure, all of which has seen the company nearly quadruple EBITDA to c.€1bn. Now, this successful divestment allows the company to solely focus on its operations in EU markets, where the business offers converged mobile and fixed telco services and where we see considerable growth potential.”

With this sale, BC Partners builds on its recent success in monetising assets following a record year in 2024 in which it monetised c.€12bn of equity value for fund and co-investors, underlining BC Partners’ exit optionality and ability to complete deals in a challenging exit environment. Recent monetisations include the exit of Synthon, Forno d’Asolo Group, IMA, Presidio, and GardaWorld as well as the successful listing of Springer Nature on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October 2024.

These transactions are subject to customary regulatory approvals and are expected to be completed during H1 2025.

-ENDS-

About BC Partners BC Partners is a leading investment firm with circa €40 billion in assets under management across private equity, private debt, and real estate strategies. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role for over three decades in developing the European buy-out market. Today BC Partners integrated transatlantic investment teams work from offices in Europe and North America and are aligned across our four core sectors: TMT, Healthcare, Services & Industrials, and Food. Since its foundation, BC Partners has completed over 128 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of over €160 billion and is currently investing its eleventh private equity buyout fund. For further information, please visit https://www.bcpartners.com/

About United Group United Group is the leading telecommunications and media group in Southeastern Europe. Operating across eight countries with more than 15,000 employees, the Group achieves an annual revenue of over c. €3 billion. In the telecommunications sector, more than 5.42 million households and more than 7.65 million mobile subscribers benefit from the largest FTTH (Fiber to the Home) network in Southeastern Europe, intensive investments in United Group's 5G network, and state-of-the-art fixed and mobile connectivity. Under the United Fiber brand, the Group consolidates its fixed infrastructure asset portfolio to further accelerate and strengthen its investments in EU-based countries by creating strong synergies and bringing its investment capabilities to the next level. United Group’s entire infrastructure wholesale activities including voice, data, mobile and roaming are managed by UGI Wholesale. The Group’s in-house tech stack company and innovation center United Cloud is driving the regional transformative shift in entertainment and telecommunications with products such as its next generation video platform EON. Its media arm, United Media, produces and distributes compelling TV content, with major sports, news and entertainment formats, reaching a vast audience of 40 million people through its market-leading free-to-air channels complemented by a compelling portfolio of Pay-TV channels. With a current capacity of producing over 40,000 hours of original local content annually, United Media manages 60 TV channels, 40 web and trusted news portals, more than 10 print editions and radio stations. For further information, please visit: https://united.group//