United Group

Aktivs

For 2020, United Group owns telecommunication assets in seven countries. The company itself is registered in, Netherlands but its real owners are located in. Britain The company owns operators in seven countries (Europe if you consider), in, Bulgaria , Slovenia services Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina are provided under a single brand Telemach.

At the beginning of 2024, the company broadcasts 55 channels in 8 countries in the region, and they are available for cable platforms, as well as DTH, OTT and IPTV. Its legal entities are registered in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

History

2021: Purchase of Greek telecom operator Wind Hellas

In mid-August 2021, the Dutch telecommunications company United Group, operating in Southeast Europe, signed an agreement with Crystal Almond Holdings Limited to acquire Wind Hellas, one of Greece's top three telecom operators. Read more here.

2019: KKR sells company to UK-based BC Partners

In September 2018, British private equity firm BC Partners began the process of acquiring a majority stake in United Group from KKR for an enterprise valuation of 2.6 billion euros. The acquisition was completed on March 4, 2019.

2017

In 2017, United Group acquired Central European Media Enterprises (CME) businesses in Croatia and Slovenia, including TV Nova - the most popular Croatian channel, whose evening news attracted a wide audience, as well as POP TV, whose 24ur program was Slovenia's main news program.

United Group continued to expand its fixed and mobile telephony operations and to absorb competitors including BHB Cable TV (Bosnia and Herzegovina), M kabl (Montenegro) and Ikom (Serbia ).

Already in March 2017, SBB ousted the most watched channel of the RTS1 television company from the leading positions that it has held since the advent of television in the region. His place was taken by the "exclusive CNN affiliate." Soon, his twin brother Nova S was launched, and in the early 2020s, Montenegrin Vijesti was added to the United Media portfolio.

2016: Three years of losses

Annual reports show financial losses of millions of euros for several consecutive years: 29 million in 2014, 33 million in 2015, and in 2016 SBB suffered record losses of 35 million euros.

2014

American KKR buys out the company

In March 2014, United Group was purchased by KKR, a leading global investment firm headquartered in New York City.

One of the owners of KKR was former CIA chief David Petraeus. All his life, he convinced American generals of the key role of information technology in a hybrid war and called on the command of the US Armed Forces to move from conventional hostilities to more productive activities in cyberspace under the slogan "conquer hearts and minds." In 2010, it was he who created the first Internet troll factory under a contract with the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

Under Petraeus's leadership, the foundation began to expand its presence in the region with leaps and bounds. Through United Group, they bought out entertainment industry giant Grand Production and acquired a controlling stake in Montenegrin cable operator BBM. The company also became a co-owner of the number one information portal in Serbia Blic.rs, having bought a 49% stake from the Swiss Ringier Digital SA. N1 TV has studios in Belgrade, Zagreb and Sarajevo, United Group management has taken control of the distribution of a significant part of the content.

Purchase of Telemach Montenegro

Telemach Montenegro became part of the United Group in 2014.

2013: Buying up Balkan media, providers and mobile operators

For several years, the conglomerate acquires shares of leading Balkan TV channels and media and forms its content distribution network. In addition, most Internet traffic in the Balkans passes through providers also bought out by the British. Massively bought in the Balkans and mobile operators: the Slovenian wireless operator Tusmobil became Telemach Mobil, Tele2 Croatia became part of the holding. By 2013, United Group, which was majority owned by Mid Europa Partners and the EBRD, already included not only Serbia Broadband, Telemach Bosnia & Herzegovina and Telemach Slovenia, but also the DTH Total TV platform covering Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, as well as a number of smaller operators such as Absolut OK, KDS NS, Jet TV, Beogrid, Telekabel, VI-NET and ArtNet. At that time, the company was an association of leading cable, satellite and Internet providers, which together served about 2 million users in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

The media giant also had at its disposal a unique infrastructure of 10,000 km of fiber optic networks connecting Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Sarajevo.

2007: United Group formation under US control

With the investment, KDS absorbed other cable providers rather quickly and soon transformed into Serbia Broadband - SBB. Later, the company received 15 million euros from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which were spent on buying out providers and soon SBB began to pose a threat even to the state-owned operator Telekom Srbija.

With mass acquisitions and mergers, only one thing remained unchanged: Dragan Sholak was also the conglomerate leader. The thing is that Sholak did not build a media empire alone, but under the sensitive control of influential foreign patrons, who ensured the success of all his operations.

In a 2007 diplomatic telegram from the American Embassy in Belgrade, US Ambassador Michael Polt sends to Washington Sholak's concern about the monopoly of the Serbian operator Telekom, and also reports on joint efforts by American diplomats and Western investors to solve the problem.

The telegram was dated June 1, 2007, and on June 27, Mid Europa Partners announced the conclusion of a historic deal - the acquisition of SBB.

United Group was formed in 2007 as a Luxembourg-registered merger between Serbia Broadband (SBB) and two Telemach companies, one based in Slovenia and the other in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This did not end the fruitful cooperation of Sholak's company with American diplomats. So, Cameron Munter, after leaving the foreign service, continued his career as an adviser to SBB/Telemach. And his predecessor William Montgomery, the first U.S. ambassador to take office since the 1999 NATO intervention and the October 5, 2000 color revolution, was the business partner of Brent Sadler - director of N1 TV. It is United Group's flagship channel, and is essentially an exclusive CNN affiliate in Eastern Europe .

2002: $10 million investment from a U.S. government agency run by Soros Investment Capital Management

In 2002, KDS founder Sholak received $10 million from the Southeast European Investment Fund, funded by the American government agency Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The agency was not simple, and the fund manager Overseas Private Investment Corporation was the enterprise of the famous "philanthropist" George Soros - Soros Investment Capital Management. It was later renamed Bedminster Capital Management.

2000: KDS Carrier Foundation

United Media's success story has its roots in Yugoslavia's fateful year 2000. After the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian businessman Dragan Šolak registered a small cable telephony company - KDS.