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Central Europe
August 3, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
its base, or Szentgotthard, where Opel manufac- tures engines.
One major challenge facing BMW will be to re- cruit staff. Companies in all industries face major
labour shortages and it will be especially hard to find highly qualified engineers.
In a press release, BMW said Debrecen is "the ideal place" for the group to expand its production network.
PPF completes €2.8bn acquisition of Telenor's business in CEE
bne IntelliNews
Czech investment group PPF Group has complet- ed the acquisition of Telenor's subsidiaries
in Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia in
a deal worth €2.8bn.
The deal was announced in March by Telenor. The company has some 10mn customers in the four markets – 3.4mn in Bulgaria, 3.3mn in Serbia and Montenegro, and 3.1mn in Hungary, but has lost around 1mn subscribers in the last three years. The divestment of the assets would fit with Tel- enor’s fundraising and cost-cutting strategy as the company is planning to refocus the business and pursue its digital transformation strategy.
"Following regulatory approvals the transaction has today been completed," Telenor said in
a statement on July 31.
A day earlier, the European Commission gave a green light to the sale.
Telenor entered the Bulgarian market in 2013, ac- quiring mobile operator Globul and retailer Germa- nos Bulgaria from Greece's OTE for €717mn, later merging the two companies. In the first nine months of 2017, Telenor Bulgaria's Ebitda edged down 0.2% y/y to €99mn. On the Bulgarian market, Telenor competes with Mtel - the local unit of Telekom Austria, and Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC, which operates under the brand Vivacom.
Telenor entered the Serbian market in 2006, acquir-
ing a 70% stake in Mobi63 for €1bn. Subsequently, the Norwegian company also acquired the remaining 30% stake. Its wireless unit competes with Telekom Srbija's mobile arm, MTS, and VIP Mobile, a unit of Telekom Austria Group. The company said in 2016 that it planned to invest over €40mn in the develop- ment of 4G services for the Serbian market during the year, and could launch 5G services by 2020.
In Montenegro, Telenor has owned the biggest telecommunications company since 2004. It com- petes with T-Mobile, owned by the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom, Magyar Telekom, and with M:tel, which is majority owned by Telekom Srbija. Hungary's Telenor is the second largest player on the market with a 27.5% market share, far behind market leader Telekom, which has 47.5% of the market. Telenor Hungary's market value could be between HUF235-325bn, according to estimates of Hungarian business portal Portfolio.hu.
Telenor and PPF have agreed on a deferred purchase price, where €400mn of the proceeds will be paid in four instalments over four years. The agreed transaction price corresponds to an enterprise value (EV)/Ebitda multiple of 6.4 based on 2017 Ebitda.
PPF's plans for another media sector deal in Bul- garia were thwarted recently, when the antitrust body banned the sale of Nova Broadcasting Group, which includes Nova TV and is controlled by Swed- ish Modern Times Group (MTG), to PPF Group.