The upcoming acquisition of RTL Croatia by CME has particular significance for both their current owners.
For RTL Group, it will mark the end of a presence in the country that goes back to 2004 with the launch of RTL Croatia. Initially a majority shareholder in the broadcaster, it became the sole owner in 2015.
RTL Group will then be left with only one operation in CEE, namely RTL Hungary. At one stage it also had a presence in Russia, before selling its 7.5% stake in National Media Group (NMG), whose assets included Ren TV, Channel 5 and a minority interest in Channel One, for $108 million in 2013.
Indeed, following the sale of RTL Croatia, for €50 million and expected close in the second quarter of this year, RTL Group’s broadcast activities will be almost entirely focused on Western Europe, where it has operations in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, for the Czech Republic’s PPF Group, the acquisition of RTL Croatia through its subsidiary CME will mark a return for the latter to the country. When still majority owned by Time Warner, CME entered into an agreement in 2017 to sell its operations in Croatia (Nova TV) and Slovenia (Pro Plus) to Slovenia Broadband, a subsidiary of United Group, for $230 million in cash. However, competition concerns resulted in only the sale of one of the operations (Nova TV), with Slovenia’s Pro Plus remaining part of CME.
Now, CME will again find itself with a strong presence in the Adria region, albeit through RTL Croatia rather than Nova TV, to add to its existing operations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. As part of the agreement with RTL, it has also secured long-term rights to use the RTL brand in Croatia.
It will be interesting to see if PPF Group is planning further broadcast acquisitions in the CEE region.
For more information about Chris Dziadul, please visit https://www.chrisdziadul.com
