Norwegian telecoms company Telenor has sold its central and eastern European assets to the Czech PPF Group for 2.8 billion euros. The assets include Telenor’s operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia which currently contribute 9 per cent of Telenor Group’s total revenues.
“With the sale of our CEE assets, we take an important step in simplifying and focusing Telenor’s portfolio on the regions where we see the strongest potential for value creation,”, said Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group. “Following this transaction, Telenor’s footprint will consist of integrated fixed and mobile operations in Scandinavia, and strong mobile positions in Asia,” he added.
Telenor has operated mobile networks in the CEE region for 25 years and is now confident that PPF Group’s experience in both the region and the sector will make it a good owner of the CEE assets.“With this purchase, PPF Group is expanding its telecommunications portfolio to four more countries, and fulfilling our long-held goal to become a mid-sized European operator and to use our experience to strengthen our market position,” commented Ladislav Bartoníček, PPF Group’s shareholder responsible for telecommunications assets.
PPF Group is today the largest private investment group in CEE with approximately 35 billion euros of assets in various sectors, including banking, consumer finance, real estate, mining and telecommunications. Through this transaction, PPF will gain full control over Telenor’s mobile operators in the four emerging European countries, as well as the rights to use the Telenor brand through the first half of 2021, and property used for the companies’ operations.
In February, PPF bought a 95 per cent stake in Bulgarian media group Nova Broadcasting from the Swedish Modern Times Group for 175.75 million euros.
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