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© Velko Angelov
The owner of BTC and Vivacom United Group officially announced today that an agreement has been reached for the purchase of the largest Bulgarian multi-platform media company Nova Broadcasting Group from Advance Media Group. The deal is expected to be completed in early 2021, once all the necessary regulatory approvals have been received.
Nova Broadcasting Group’s portfolio consists of 10 television channels, including national Nova TV, the largest online platform in Bulgaria, Netinfo, which reaches 80% of Bulgaria’s population every month, and four radio stations. The latest additions to the portfolio of the media group are the television channel “Channel 3”, which will be profiled as entirely news under the name “Nova News”, the musical televisions The Voice TV and Magic TV, as well as the radio The Voice Radio, “Radio Veselina”. Magic FM and Radio Vitosha, all connected over the years with MRF MP Delyan Peevski.
Recently, “Capital” wrote that “United Group” also wants to buy MRF MP Delyan Peevski’s newspapers “Telegraph”, “Monitor”, “Politika”, “Meridian Match” and “Borba”. The buyer is United Media, a subsidiary of United Group.
The current owner of Nova Broadcasting Group – Advance Media Group, is a subsidiary of the investment holding Advance Properties, owned by brothers Kiril and Georgi Domuschievi. The exact price of the deal is not yet known, but according to market sources it is between 250 million and 300 million euros, Capital wrote recently. The Domuschiev brothers paid 185 million euros for Nova Broadcasting Group.
Both buyer and seller are satisfied
“We are very satisfied with the deal. We are buying a successful company from two renowned entrepreneurs that has great growth potential as part of United Group. The purchase is in line with United Group’s overall strategy to develop as a telecommunications operator. and means for all “. Nova Broadcasting Group complements the group’s existing media channels and I am convinced that we will achieve a very good synergy between all of them, which will give us an even greater opportunity to invest in local content and reach audiences quickly and efficiently. “said United Group CEO Victoria Boklag.
For his part, the CEO of Advance Media Group, Georgi Domuschiev, commented that the agreement was a great success. “I would like to thank everyone who helped us develop the leading business media group in Bulgaria. The agreement with United Group will ensure the future development of NOVA,” he added.
The investment is the fourth major deal since BC Partners acquired United Group in March 2019. United Group is a media and telecommunications group that is present in all countries of the former Yugoslavia, and recently set foot in Bulgaria and Greece. The company has cable providers, satellite network, advertising businesses and produces content with several television channels. The group was founded by Serbian businessman Dragan Sholak in 2000 as a small cable operator.
It remains a minority shareholder with a stake of approximately 39%. The group began a series of acquisitions in the region after the majority owner of the group last year became London-based fund BC Partners with just over 50%. Thus, in addition to BTC United Group, it also acquired the Greek television, internet and telecommunications service provider Forthnet, as well as the Croatian Tele 2 Croatia. In addition to BC Partners and Sholak, the group’s shareholders are the EBRD and the KKR Fund.
New at Domuschievi
Nova TV was bought by brothers Kiril and Georgi Domuschievi in February 2019. It was previously owned by the Swedish company MTG, and the candidate for its acquisition was the Czech businessman Petr Kellner, who was not authorized by the Competition Commission. Therefore, Nova Broadcasting Group (NBG) had the opportunity to gain full control over the largest online group in the Bulgarian market: Net Info (which includes abv.bg, Vbox7 video content platform, Vesti.bg, Dariknews.bg, Sinoptik.bg, Edna.bg, Gong.bg, Grabo.bg, Trendo.bg, etc.).
The time since Nova TV was owned by the Domuschiev brothers has been marked by the departure of long-standing staff and a shift in media policy that has become staunchly pro-government.
