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Mid Europa Creates the Leading SEE PayTV Platform through the Merger and Recapitalisation of its Investments in SBB and Telemach

Mid Europa Partners ("Mid Europa") announced today the formation of the leading pay TV platform in South Eastern Europe ("SEE"), through the combination of SBB and Telemach, entities controlled by funds managed or advised by Mid Europa.  The combined business will cater to more than 1.7 million users of cable TV, satellite TV, Internet, and fixed and mobile telephony services across the countries of the former Yugoslavia, a regional market of over 20 million inhabitants.

As part of the transaction, SBB/Telemach Group raised €330 million of senior financing from eight regional and international banks (BNP Paribas, Erste Group Bank, ING Bank and Unicredit as Co-ordinators & MLAs, and Banca IMI, Credit Agricole CIB, Raiffeisen Bank International and Société Générale as MLAs) to refinance existing debt and fund further acquisitive growth, with the balance being available to shareholders.

Robert Knorr, Partner of Mid Europa who leads Mid Europa's SEE investments commented: "Today's transaction marks an important step in our regional consolidation strategy in this sector as we have just formed the leading multi-country pay TV distribution platform operating in SEE. Mid Europa sees similar opportunities in other sectors in this part of the region where regional champions can be created through consolidation and organic growth."

Andrej Babache, Associate Director of Mid Europa commented: "This transaction is the fourth landmark financing that we have arranged in SEE over the last few years and is the region's first cross-border sponsor financing with multi-jurisdictional debt pushdown. Our ability to secure attractive financing terms for this complex transaction in testing market conditions is a testament to the high quality and strong performance of our two businesses and the collaborative effort of their management teams with Mid Europa".

Dragan Solak, Chairman of the SBB/Telemach Group commented: "The Group is one of the fastest growing pay TV providers worldwide, having grown revenues by more than 20% annually since 2007. This transaction not only creates a regional champion, but also gives the Group access to significant financial resources to support future acquisitive growth, ensuring that we can continue to take advantage of the ample consolidation opportunities in the region".

The financing and merger transactions were arranged and executed by the Mid Europa team: Stefan Tzvetkov, Andrej Babache, Viktoria Habanova and Krzysztof Jedrzejek.

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