Kopernikus Corporation
Kopernikus Corporation is a Cypriot company 100% owned by Srđan Milovanović. This company is the ultimate owner or co-owner of numerous companies in Serbia. Milovanović founded Kopernikus Technology in 1998 and until 2002 the company was engaged in the sale of satellite dishes, air conditioners, as well as audio video devices when it became a leading importer and distributor of cable television equipment (cable stations, amplifiers, passive and active equipment and all types of cables). Since 2005, Kopernikus has been expanding its business to the design, construction and exploitation of cable distribution systems (KDS), and since 2008 it has been expanding its range of services with the introduction of the Internet. As part of the offer of cable television services, Kopernikus offers a large number of domestic and foreign television programs (about 200 channels), out of which numerous have pro-government content.
In 2016, Abris Capital Partners, one of the leading investment funds in Central Europe, became the majority owner of the company, while Milovanović, brother of Zvezdan Milovanović, a senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, remains a minority owner. In December 2018, Kopernikus Corporation Ltd, owned by Milovanović, bought for EUR 180 million all media operating in Serbia within the Antenna Group, including TV stations Prva and O2. Before that, Milovanović sold the subsidiaries of the cable operator to the state telecommunications company Telekom for almost EUR 195 million. The Antitrust Commission approved this sale, because the Antenna did not exceed the market share of 35%, the threshold for concentration according to the Law on Electronic Media. TV Prva and B92 were also granted permission to broadcast their program at the national level in 2022. However, when Kopernikus was about to enter into a contract with the SBB cable network, it made a bid that was higher than the one of the market. Subsequently, SBB and Kopernikus entered into a three-year contract to continue broadcasting, which raised the cost of broadcasting by 14%. SBB pays more than four million euros annually for television Prva and B92.
Business Form
Private
Legal Form
Corporations and LLCs
Business Sectors
Business support; Hospitality; Construction of buildings; Engineering activities and technical consulting; Manufacture of measuring, investigating and navigational; instruments and apparatus; Road freight transport; Consulting activities; Wholesale of tobacco products
Individual Owner
Other TV Outlets
Prva Plus
First Max
Prva World
Prva Kick
Prva Life
Prva Files
Other Online Outlets
KCN Online
Media Business
Radio Broadcasting
Play Radio d.o.o. (100%)
Television Broadcasting
Radio Diffusion Company B92 (100%)
Prva televizija (100%)
Business
Business Support
Kopernikus System (100%)
Hospitality
Kopernikus hotel Prague (100%)
Kopernikus Hotels and Restaurants (100%)
Construction
Kopernikus Real Estate (100%)
Kopernikus Tower (100%)
Engineering activities and technical consulting
Kopernikus gradnja (100%)
Manufacture of measuring, research and navigation instruments and apparatus
Kopernikus Borac (100%)
Road freight transport
Kopernikus Logistics (100%)
Consulting activities
Astonko (100%)
Wholesale of tobacco products
Brascuba (100%)
Cable Television Services
Kopernikus Corporation (Cyprus)
Media
Kopernikus Corporation (Netherlands)
General Information
Founding Year
2009
Founder
Srđan Milovanović
Affiliated Interests Founder
the owner of the Kopernikus Corporation and the brother of Zvezdan Milovanović, until recently a longtime trustee of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party for the city of Niš. The owner of local and cable TV Kopernikus, Milovanović became the owner of TV stations with a national frequency in December 2018, when he bought the media owned by the Antenna Group - TV Prva and O2, as TV B92, Prva TV Montenegro, Play radio, six cable channels and three portals Prva.rs, O2tv.rs and B92.net were called at that time. About a month earlier, he sold the company Kopernikus Technology, a cable operator, to Telekom Srbija for about EUR 195 million. Media experts then assessed that with this purchase, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party monopolised the media market. Previously, he was in the media spotlight several times. During the 2012 election campaign, he sold eight hours of programming from one Kopernikus channel to Sens marketing, a close Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which broadcast its own program. The Republic Broadcasting Agency announced that the parties, however, could not lease the program in that way. Milovanović was also reported in 2016 when the controversial businessman Predrag Ranković Peconi was wounded at the Hotel Prague in Belgrade. He was sitting at the table when Peconi was shot, and the media wrote that the reason for the gathering of the society was precisely the celebration organised by Srđan Milovanović for the purchase of the Prague Hotel. The Milovanović brothers are the owners of several offshore companies. According to business documentation, Srđan Milovanović has been operating through offshore companies for years. Among other things, Milovanović is the owner of the record label KCN Records, founded in 2009. The first album released by this house was an album by folk singer Jovana Tipšin, Milovanović's then girlfriend. At a public tender, Milovanović bought land in New Belgrade at the Directorate for Construction Land and Construction of Belgrade, where there was a market known as a flea market, for about 20.2 million euros, as Nova.rs reported. The Kopernikus Company should build Kopernikus Tower on this site, "the most modern and largest office complex in the country and the region" of 100,000 square metres. Data from the Business Registers Agency show that Srđan Milovanović is the owner, director or representative of 15 companies, including hotels and restaurants, such as the Belgrade Hotel Prague, companies engaged in construction, real estate sales, road freight transport and trade in tobacco products. KCN televisions with local frequency are owned by his brother Zvezdan.
the director of several companies operating within Kopernikus – in addition to B92 TV, she is the director of Prva Television, Radio Play, as well as the company Nova Broadcasting and Astonko, the company owned by B92 TV. Before she started working for Srđan Milovanović, the owner of Kopernikus, she had an entrepreneurial shop Auditor from Kragujevac that worked between 2003 and 2014. According to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Kragujevac and worked as the accountant for several companies in this city in the 1990s. Since 2007, she worked for Triglav Osiguranje (Insurance) in Belgrade, and since 2017, she has been the head of accounting at Kopernikus Technology, which was sold to Telekom Srbija a year later by Srđan Milovanović.
Employees
Missing Data
Contact
John Kennedy 28, Stylianides Building, Apt 401, 1087 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tax/ ID Number
HE 386632
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Management
Other Influential People
Srdjan and Zvezdan Milovanovic are brothers. Zvezdan Milovanovic is a high-ranking member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and until recently he was the party's commissioner for the city of Nis for many years. Zvezdan is the owner of local television stations KCN.
Further Information
Meta Data
Missing data on market share and advertising revenue. Financial data is available only for the company that publishes the media, but not for the media itself.
