United Group welcomes Vivacom – the largest telecom operator in Bulgaria
31 July 2020 - Vivacom Bulgaria, another successful telecommunications company, has officially become part of the United Group family.
United Group, the leading telecommunications and media operator in Southeast Europe, majority owned by BC Partners, completed its acquisition of Vivacom. This follows the approval of the deal by the European Commission in April 2020 and the signing of the agreement in November 2019, when United Group won the tender to acquire the leading telecommunications company in Bulgaria.
Vivacom was the first telecommunications company in Bulgaria and has been the largest domestic operator in terms of revenues for the last seven years. Its market-leading position has been driven by strong understanding of customers’ needs and bringing technological innovations to provide advanced, high-quality services including fibre broadband, mobile communications and digital TV to private and commercial customers.
Victoriya Boklag, United Group CEO, said: “Vivacom established its number one position in Bulgaria with excellent management, impressive financial results, technological advancements, and remarkable team collaboration. With a clear vision and strategy for the future, United Group has acquired another market leader in the region.”
This acquisition marks the latest milestone in United Group’s growth strategy, following the acquisition of TELE2 Croatia earlier this year, as well as forthcoming completion of the acquisition of the Greece’s pay TV, telecom and Internet provider Forthnet. Operating in both the telecoms and media sectors, the United Group platform combines the leading operators and best content producers in Southeast Europe and will finish the year with over 10 million users and over 11 thousand employees.
“For Vivacom, joining the United Group family is a huge opportunity to accelerate the excellent results achieved so far in the Bulgarian market. It is the right time to take the next step and we look forward to working and sharing our collective experience with United Group to take our services in Bulgaria to the next level”, commented Atanas Dobrev, CEO of Vivacom.
About United Group B.V.
United Group is the leading multi-play telecommunications and media provider in South Eastern Europe. Through its member companies, United Group operates across the six markets of former Yugoslavia – Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and
Macedonia – where it has over 3.9 million cable and satellite TV, broadband, fixed and mobile RGUs.
With a population of over 20 million, the former Yugoslav region represents one of the largest Central Eastern European markets and is characterized by rapidly growing pay-TV and broadband markets. United Group consists of SBB (the leading cable operator in Serbia), Telemach Slovenia (the leading cable and the fastest growing mobile operator in Slovenia), Telemach Bosnia and Herzegovina (the leading cable operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina), United Media (content operations), and other businesses including NetTV Plus (a leading provider of telecom services over the internet). The Group also provides services using a number of ancillary brands resulting from its growth across the region.