SBB, Telemach merge to create powerhouse pay TV platform in SEE

SBB and Telemach are controlled by funds managed or advised by Mid Europa.

The combined business will cater to more than 1.7 million users of cable TV, satellite TV, Internet, and fixed and mobile telephony services across the countries of the former Yugoslavia, a regional market of over 20 million inhabitants, Mid Europa Partners said in a statement on Wednesday.

As part of the transaction, SBB/Telemach Group raised 330 million euro ($431.6 million) of senior financing from eight regional and international banks to refinance existing debt and fund further acquisitional growth.

"[The] transaction marks an important step in our regional consolidation strategy in this sector as we have just formed the leading multi-country pay TV distribution platform operating in SEE,” Mid Europa partner Robert Knorr said.

SBB group has extensive fiber-optic infrastructure in three ex-Yugoslavia states – Serbia, Slovenia and Bosnia, passing through Croatia. The length of the company’s Serbian fiber-optic network is over 3,000 kilometres. The national backbone of roughly 1,400 km with six border crossings connects metropolitan networks in 28 cities countrywide.

Telemach, partially owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in 2010 entered the Bosnian market by acquiring three Sarajevo-based cable operators and in 2011 it acquired Mostar-based cable operator Monet. It is a cable TV operator operating mostly in Slovenia and Bosnia.

($=0.7646 Euro)