United Group
United Group is the largest telecom provider in the region formed in 2007 through the combination of SBB and Telemach Slovenia, as well as Telemach Bosnia which was acquired shortly after. In January 2013, former US Ambassador to Serbia, Cameron Munter, started working as senior advisor to the SBB-Telemach Group Board of Directors. The following year, United Group is majority-owned by KKR, a leading global investment firm with headquarters in New York. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is a co-investor in the company.
The Group continued spreading by acquiring Grand Production (turbo folk production house) in Serbia and Telemach Montenegro in 2014, third largest mobile operator in Slovenia Tusmobil in April 2015 and in July 2015, they completed the acquisition of a majority interest in BHB Cable TV d.o.o., a cable pay-TV operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and five smaller cable TV operators in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 30 October 2014, their cable television station N1, CNN’s affiliate in the Balkans, has been on air in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2017, United Group acquired IKOM cable operator in Serbia.
BC Partners and KKR have been the owners of United Group since March 2019, of which N1 is a part of. The former owners were the EBRD and KKR, which then sold the majority stake in United Group to BC Partners, although KKR kept a minority stake, the size of which is not known to the public.
Today, the Group is providing television, Internet, fixed and mobile telephony to a large number of households and offices in the region through its cable, DTH and OTT platforms, as well as data and voice services, certified managed services to small, medium and large companies and content and advertising sales business.
Operating in six Balkan countries (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia), United Group is targeting the market of 20 million people and has revenues of 582.2 million euro.
Mother Company
BC Partners and KKR
Business Form
private
Business Sectors
Media, telecommunications, cable operators and advertising
Individual Owner
BC Partners
BC Partners is a leading international investment company with €20 billion in funds that it manages and invests. Founded in 1986, for three decades BC Partners has had an active role in developing and shaping the European acquisitions market. Today, the executive directors of BC Partners work in many markets as an integrated team, through offices in North America and Europe. Since being founded, BC Partners has invested in 105 companies which had a total value of €130 million and is currently investing from its tenth fund. In March 2019, BC Partners bought a majority stake in United Group from the investment fund KKR, with KKR keeping an undisclosed minority stake. KKR, with Henry Kravis and George Robertson, is a global investment company based in New York and founded in 1976. Since then, it has made €400 billion of private capital. KKR manages investment funds in a variety of sectors (pension funds, energy sector, insurance companies, investment banks, commercial banks, foundations, etc.).
Other TV Outlets
N1 and 30 other cable channels in the region.
Other Online Outlets
Media Business
News production
N1 and rsN1info.com
Cable and satellite
Telemach, SBB, Total TV, NetTV.plus
Advertising sales
CAS media
Business
Fixed and mobile telephony
Tusmobile
Sales and advertising
CAS media
Technology development center
United Cloud
International business
Mobile operator Tusmobile and Telemach cable operator in Slovenia; Total TV in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia; nettv.plus OTT provider for Yugoslav diaspora across the world; Telemach Montenegro in Montenegro; SBB in Serbia; and Telemach BIH and BHB cable TV and five small ones in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
General Information
Founding Year
2007
Founder
SBB | Telemach Slovenia
Affiliated Interests Founder
SBB is the leading cable and internet operator in Serbia while Telemach is the leading Cable Television and Broadband Internet service provider, and the largest alternative fixed line operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Employees
4410
Contact
Tax/ ID Number
Missing Data
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
482.2 Mio. EUR
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Management
Executive Board
Dragan Solak - Chairman of the Board. He founded SBB, the leading cable operator in Serbia, in 2002 that is now part of United Group. He served as Managing Director of United Group B.V. He also serves as the Executive Chairman of Managing Board at Broadband Investment S.à r.l. He continues to be involved in all aspects of the business and is responsible for the overall strategic leadership of the Group.
Other Influential People
Brant Sadler - regional director of N1 and the award-winning, internationally recognised journalist, a former CNN Senior International Correspondent.
David Petraeus, director of KKR Global Insittute, who was tightly involved in negotiations with the Serbian government before entering the Serbian market, is a former controversial CIA head.
Further Information
Meta Data
Financial data can be found only on the website of the United Media Group.
