Aster

MidEuropa played a big part of Aster’s growth journey which saw it become Poland’s first quadruple-play service provider, offering television, broadband internet and mobile and fixed line telephony services, and was the first operator to introduce digital CATV services. Initially part of a consortium that supported the company since 2003, MidEuropa had a strong relationship with management and the vendor and so reinvested, as did management, in March 2006. The next five years saw Aster become the fourth largest CATV operator and the third largest broadband Internet service provider in Poland with 380,000 subscribers.

Aster was sold to UPC Poland, an affiliate of Liberty Global, in 2011.

Partnership highlights:

• Supported reviews of the product and pricing mix, with strong revenue growth achieved through new product lines introduced and quality and innovation facilitating price increases
• Customer-centric focus saw significant benefits from cross-selling, including reduced subscriber churn and higher average spend per customer
• Operating efficiencies achieved through merging Krakow and Zielona Gora subsidiaries and relocating HQ to Warsaw, thereby enhancing communications across functions. This led to best-in-class EBITDA margins of nearly 60%

Value creation:

• Operational Excellence
• Organic Growth