EQT V acquires Eurocom and CableTel
October 30, 2009
EQT V, a European private equity fund, has agreed to acquire Bulgaria's two leading cable TV operators, Eurocom and CableTel. EQT V intends to merge the two entities, invest into the new company together with CableTel's current shareholder, Ron Finley, and create a major player in the Bulgarian digital TV and broadband markets.
EQT V is acquiring 100 per cent of the shares in Eurocom from US-based private equity house Warburg Pincus. At the same time, EQT V acquires 70 per cent of the shares in CableTel from Gene Phillips. CableTel's other shareholder Ron Finley will remain minority shareholder by rolling over his 30 per cent shareholding in CableTel into the merged company and investing further equity.
The merged company will be the clear market leader in both Bulgaria and Macedonia with annual revenues of approximately E70 million and some 0.5 million households connected to the network.
The Bulgarian cable TV market is fragmented and digital TV and broadband penetration rates are lower than in the European Union as a whole. EQT V intends to accelerate the move into digital TV, broadband and telephony services by continuously investing into and offering a broad range of new and competitive services in combination with superior customer service.
EQT has a strong track record of fostering growth and value creation in the more than 70 companies that it has invested in over the last 14 years. EQT has previously developed Swedish cable TV operators StjärnTV and Com Hem into leading local providers of digital TV, broadband and telephony.