
EQT sells Blizoo Macedonia to Telekom Austria
EQT has agreed to sell Blizoo Macedonia, the Macedonian operations of cable TV operator Blizoo, to Telekom Austria.
The purchase price is reported to stand in the double-digit million euro range.
Telekom Austria will use its existing cashflow to finance the deal, which is expected to close in Q3 2014.
Previous funding
In 2009, EQT acquired Bulgaria's two leading cable TV operators, Eurocom and CableTel, for €200m via EQT V, according to unquote" data. The two businesses were merged to form Blizoo.
Eurocom was bought from Warburg Pincus. EQT bought a 70% stake in CableTel from Gene Phillips; the company's other shareholder, Ron Finley, rolled his stake over into the merged company.
Company
Founded in 2009 as a result of the merger of Eurocom and CableTel, Blizoo is a digital cable TV company operating in Bulgaria and Macedonia. The entire company has a 14% share of the fixed broadband market and 17% of the TV market, reflective of its 63,000 subscribers, 47,000 of whom are broadband subscribers.
According to EQT, Blizoo reported revenues of €56m in 2013, with EBITDA of €23m. The firm employs 1,500 staff. Macedonian operations accounted for around €10m.
People
EQT's Dominik Stein oversaw the investment in Blizoo.
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