BDK Advokati and Kirkland & Ellis have advised BC Partners on its agreement to acquire a majority stake in United Group B.V. from KKR, which retains a substantial minority stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
United Group is a media and communication services provider across South East Europe. KKR is a global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic manager partnerships that manage hedge funds.
BDK Advokati advised BC Partners on Serbian, Montenegrin, and Bosnia law, and assisted the company on Slovenian, Macedonian, Croatian, and Albanian law. Kirkland & Ellis was BC Partner’s international law firm on the deal.
According to BDK Advokati, this is an important event on the South-East European market given that United Group provides broadcasting and distribution services to more than 1.8 billion customers in the region and employs over 3,400 people.
The BDK Advokati team consisted of Senior Partner Vladimir Dasic and Partner Bogdan Ivanisevic.
The Kirkland team consisted of London Partners David Higgins, Stuart Boyd, David D’Souza, Neel Sachdev, Matthew Merkle, Daniel Borg, Paula Riedel, Tim Lowe, and Shawn Anderson, and Associates Annette Baillie, Sam Whittaker, Jessica Liang, Kathryn Alexander, Kanesh Balasubramaniam, Harry Briffitt, Luke Newling, Rachel O’Neill, Shane Cranley, and Dragana Cvejic.
Editor's Note: After this article was published CEE Legal Matters learned that Selih & partnerji in Slovenia, the Polenak law firm in Macedonia, and Kalo & Associates in Albania acted for BC Partners in their respective jurisdictions.
Subsequently, CEE Legal Matters was informed that Schoenherr had advised KKR on the sale. The firm's team was led by Belgrade-based Partners Slaven Moravcevic and Milos Lakovic and Vienna-based Partner Alexander Popp, supported by Schoenherr colleagues in Belgrade, Banja Luka, Podgorica, Skopje, and Vienna.
Subsequently, in March, 2019, BDK Advokati reported that the deal had in fact "completed."
