SBB Telemach

MidEuropa leveraged its credibility and strong track record in pay TV in CEE to become the preferred partner of SBB and Telemach, ultimately combining them in 2012 to create the largest pay TV platform in South East Europe. The combined EV of the two investments when SBB and Telemach were acquired in June 2007 and July 2009 respectively was nearly €300 million. 

The strategy involved growing the business out of its home Serbian base, first through greenfield regional satellite roll-out and then through a focused pan-Yugoslav cable TV acquisition strategy. MidEuropa quickly identified substantial potential for consolidating the fragmented market, and supported SBB Telemach Group in undertaking 17 acquisitions.

During the MidEuropa holding period, the Group revenue and EBITDA grew 20% per annum through acquisitive and organic growth, ultimately going on to become one of the largest private equity exits in CEE when it was purchased by KKR, a global private equity firm, in a deal worth over €1 billion in 2014. 

Partnership highlights: 

• Provided financial support, securing and structuring equity and debt financing for the expansion strategy
• Supported management’s diversification strategy in securing exclusive content by integrating leading sport, film and children’s content in-house
• Group revenue and EBITDA increasing by 20% and 22% CAGR (2007-2013) respectively, through both acquisitive and organic growth
• Group EBITDA more than doubled since acquisition
• Revenue Generating Units (RGUs) increased from 0.6 million in 2007 to 1.8 million in December 2013

Value creation:

• Acquisitive Growth
• Organic Growth
• Operational Excellence
• International expansion