BC Partners' United Group to buy Vivacom in €1.2bn deal

Francesca Veronesi
08 November 2019

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United Group, an Amsterdam-based telecoms and media provider active in south-eastern Europe and backed by BC Partners, has agreed to acquire Bulgaria-based Vivacom in a €1.2bn transaction.

[Editor's note: BC Partners is the minority owner of Acuris, the parent company of Unquote]

The acquisition will help United Group expand its geographical reach, with Vivacom serving 1.8 million customers in Bulgaria.

The bolt-on will be financed through a combination of new debt and cash on hand at United Group.

The sale of Vivacom started in around April and bidders including sponsors BC Partners and Providence Equity entered the second round in September, sources familiar with the situation told Unquote sister publication Mergermarket.

Founded in 2012, United Group is a telecoms and media business active in south-eastern Europe, operating in six countries in the region. Around 1.8 million homes in the Balkans subscribe to services of United Group. BC Partners acquired a majority stake in the company from KKR, which retained a minority holding in the business, in Q3 2018. At the time, a source familiar with the situation told Unquote that United Group was valued at around €2.6bn. BC Partners deployed capital from its €7bn BC European Capital X fund.

United Group has since bolted on mobile operator Tele2 Croatia. Announced in June this year, the deal gave the business an enterprise value of €220m. Overall, United Group has completed around 100 acquisitions to date since inception.

Company
Founded in 1992 and based in Sofia, Vivacom provides services including fibre broadband, mobile communications and digital TV to private and commercial customers.

The company generated BGN 948m (€485m) consolidated revenues and BGN 359.8m (€184m) consolidated adjusted EBITDA in 2018, according to its annual report. It employs 6,000 people.

A consortium led by Bulgarian businessman Spas Roussev took control of Vivacom from Russia's VTB Bank in 2016 after bidding €330m in an auction the previous year, according to a Reuters report. The consortium also took on about €450m of Vivacom debt, the report added.

People
BC Partners – Nikos Stathopoulos (partner).
Vivacom – Spas Roussev (chairman).

Advisers
Vendor – Lazard (M&A); CMS (legal).
Equity – Citigroup (M&A); LionTree (M&A); Paul Weiss (legal).