June 3 (SeeNews) - United Group, a leading multi-play telecommunications and media services provider in Southeast Europe (SEE), said it has agreed to buy the Croatian business of Swedish peer Tele2 for 220 million euro ($246 million).
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of 2019, United Group said in a statement late on Friday.
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"Croatia is an attractive and important market for us and we are pleased with the acquisition of Tele2 Croatia since it will help us further boost the Group's operations both in the EU member states and via strengthening the telecommunications services which we offer," United Group CEO, Viktoriya Boklag, said in the statement.
Tele2 said in a separate note the sale provides it with a chance to reap the value of its successful operations in Croatia and to continue working on its strategy to focus on the Baltic Sea region.
In Croatia, a market of around 4.3 million people, Tele2 Croatia competes with the local arm of A1 Telekom Austria Group - A1 Hrvatska, and with the wireless arm of Hrvatski Telekom.
For United Group the deal marks its first purchase under its new owner - UK-based investment firm BC Partners.
In March, BC Partners completed the 2.6 billion euro acquisition of United Group from US-based investment group KKR.
United Group employs over 4,400 people and provides services to more than 1.8 million households.
Founded in Serbia and headquartered in Amsterdam, the Group operates in Bosnia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia through brands such as SBB, Telemach and United Media, and channels such as SportKlub, Nova TV and N1TV, plus a global OTT service.
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