The Slovak private equity fund Sandberg Capital has agreed with its joint venture partner DanubiaTel to sell its 50% stake in Swan, the country’s leading alternative telco.
It will be taken over by Swan’s sister company Swan Mobile, a member of the DanubiaTel group, which also operates the mobile company 4ka. The transaction will mark the end of Sandberg Capital’s involvement in the telecom market after a period of four years.
Commenting on the development, Sandberg partner Michal Rybovic said: “We joined the joint venture as the owner of the then operator Benestra and DanubiaTel as a shareholder of Swan. Our common goal was to consolidate the telecommunications market as well as increase the value of Swan through post-merger synergies. The companies complemented the portfolio of services they offered perfectly. We managed to overcome our investment goals, which we set, so the exit was the natural culmination of our mission”.
The merger of Swan and Benestra created the largest alternative telco operator in 2017, owned exclusively by Slovak capital. After the merger, the company built on the strengths of individual companies in order to gain an even stronger position in the market. Today, Swan is the second largest provider of fixed telecom services in the business sector and its turnover reaches almost €100 million.
Chairman of the board of both companies Juraj Ondris added: “The planned merger of Swan and Swan Mobile into one entity is planned for the turn of 2021 and 2022. It is a natural step towards the effort to provide customers with convergent products, ie fixed and mobile services from one supplier and on one invoice”.
Although the value of the transaction has not been disclosed, the parties say that financing totaling €177 million is being provided by a consortium of banks. The transaction still requires the approval of the Slovak Antimonopoly Office.
