News
Acquisition to strengthen Vipnet’s B2B business, as operator pushes ahead with convergence strategy.
Telekom Austria on Thursday agreed to acquire Croatian altnet Metronet and merge it with its local operating unit, Vipnet.
Metronet focuses primarily on the B2B market, offering voice, data, and managed IT and cloud services to its 4,300 corporate customers. The company’s fibre network is present in 66 cities, reaching 85% of Croatian businesses.
Metronet generated revenue of €28 million in 2015, with B2B accounting for 90% of that total. 2015 EBITDA came in at €12 million.
"The acquisition of Metronet strengthens the group’s Croatian business, where it has been offering convergent services since 2011," said Telekom Austria’s group CEO and COO, Alejandro Plater, in a statement.
Telekom Austria offers services in Croatia via the Vipnet brand. Vipnet ended September with 1.82 million mobile customers and 607,000 fixed-line revenue-generating units (RGUs).
Telekom Austria said it will finance the transaction with existing cash flow. It did not disclose how much it will pay for Metronet. The acquisition is expected to close, subject to regulatory approval, in the first quarter of 2017.
Thursday’s deal marks the latest step in Telekom Austria’s group-wide convergence strategy.
At the end of November, the company agreed to acquire Belarusian fixed-line providers Atlant Telecom and its TeleSet subsidiary. They will be merged with Telekom Austria’s local unit, Velcom, transforming it from a mobile-only player to a fully converged operator.
