Mid Europa refinances SBB and Telemach

The new group will provide a pay TV platform across the countries of former Yugoslavia. The financing was provided by BNP Paribas, Erste Group Bank, ING Bank and Unicredit as co-ordinators and mandated lead arrangers (MLAs), as well as Banca IMI, Credit Agricole CIB, Raiffeisen Bank International and Société Générale as MLAs.

The facility will be used to refinance existing debt and fund further acquisitive growth, with the balance being available to shareholders.

Mid Europa believes there are opportunities to build dominant players in other sectors in the south-east of Europe, by merging and organically growing businesses.

Previous investment
Mid Europa first invested in Telemach group in a €27.72m expansion round in June 2000. The business was later acquired by UnitedGlobalCom for €71m in December 2004. Mid Europa reinvested in July 2009 when it wholly acquired the company. Telemach has since expanded into Bosnia and Herzegovina and has had an annual turnover growth rate of 20% since 2007.

Mid Europa acquired a controlling stake in SBB in June 2007.

Company
Telemach is a Slovenian provider of cable TV, telephony and broadband internet services. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Ljubljana.

SBB was founded in Belgrade in 2002. It is a provider of digital and analogue cable television and broadband internet in Serbia, and satellite television across six countries in south-east Europe. The company employs more than 900 people.

People
The Mid Europa team working on the transaction was led by Robert Knorr and comprised Stefan Tzvetkov, Andrej Babache, Viktoria Habanova and Krzysztof Jedrzejek.

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• Topics
• CEE
• Restructuring
• Portfolio management
• Media
• Mid Europa Partners
• Serbia
• Slovenia
• Refinancing