Croatian triple-play operator B.net seeks new owner
November 7, 2008
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Croatian triple-play operator B.net, owned by Austrian concern Bewag, has announced an international tender which will result with a change of ownership by the end of the year.
According to the president of the Board of B.net, Adrian Ježina, several non-binding bids have already been received, mostly from foreign companies, with binding bids expected in December. Operations director, Željko Batistić, said that B.net invested around E10 million over the past year in improving the quality and expanding the coverage of the network infrastructure and the content/program packages. By the end of 2008, 55% of B.net users will be on the digital platform, with a complete switchover from analogue to digital expected by 2011.
Since introducing fixed telephony and internet to the existing cable TV service, over the past year B.net boosted subscriber figures by 40,000 to a total of 250,000 users/households. The operator plans to add at least 30,000 net subscribers during 2009.