The London-based private equity firm BC Partners have entered into exclusive negotiations with the creditors of the Greek telco Forthnet.
The BC Partners subsidiary United Group has offered to buy Forthnet and according to Ekathimerini this will not only include obtaining Forthnet’s shares from its creditors but also taking on the obligations and financing the company until the completion of the deal.
Furthermore, it has not asked for anything from the banks.
Ekathimerini adds a deal would result in the transfer of loans totalling €310 million, as well as the shares currently controlled by the banks, currently worth around a third of the share capital.
Although BC Partners has offered over €40 million for the shares, it may have to pay up to €100 million to buy Forthnet outright.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, Duet Private Equity and Antenna Group have also been targeting Forthnet, whose interests include the pay-TV platform Nova TV, available in Greece and Cyprus.
United Group is one of the leading providers of media and communication services in South East Europe.
Majority owned by BC Partners since March last year, its assets include Serbia Broadband (SBB), the Bulgarian incumbent Vivacom and Croatian telco Tele2.
