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VEM for the American Acquisition of Nova TV

The Council for Electronic Media (VEM) made a unanimous decision at its meeting held on Monday that the legal conditions have been met for Slovenia Broadband, a company within the American fund KKR, to acquire one hundred percent of the shares of Nova TV d.d., as the concentration is no longer considered unlawful under the Electronic Media Act.

Slovenia Broadband S.a.r.l., which submitted a new application on January 24, is an international holding company that manages the operations of various operating companies in Central and Eastern Europe, including the area of Croatia, as stated in VEM’s announcement.

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The applicant submitted its new request following a previous decision by the Agency for Electronic Media, which determined that the concentration was considered unlawful due to the connection between the applicant and the company Totalna televizija d.o.o. in terms of the provisions of the Electronic Media Act and the fact that Totalna televizija d.o.o. is an operator.

In its new application, the applicant stated that, prompted by the rejection decision and the reasons cited as obstacles to a positive resolution of the request, United Group B.V. transferred all business shares in TOTAL TV B.V., based in Amsterdam, to a third unrelated party, the company V-Investement Holdings B.V., also based in Amsterdam.

“Considering that the company Totalna televizija d.o.o. is no longer an associated person of the applicant, the Council, after conducting the procedure and following the legally decisive facts, decided that the concentration in question is not considered unlawful under the Electronic Media Act,” the announcement states.

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The new decision followed last year’s decision by VEM, which was later confirmed by the Competition Protection Agency (AZTN), regarding the rejection of the acquisition of Nova TV on the grounds that there were no legal conditions for acquiring 100 percent of the shares due to the unlawfulness of media concentration under the Electronic Media Act.

This decision by Croatian regulatory authorities postponed the announced acquisition of Nova TV, which the powerful American investment company, also noted as the owner of N1 television, wanted to finalize the acquisition of media operations in Croatia and Slovenia from the previous owner of Nova TV – the CME corporation, valued at approximately 230 million euros.