News

Vipnet has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in CCBN member company Metronet telekomunikacije. The sellers comprise Croatian corporations, financial institutions and private individuals, including Quaestus Private Equity Fund. The total value of the transaction remains undisclosed. Completion of the transaction is expected in Q1/2017 and is subject to approval by the Croatian Competition Agency.

Metronet is a leading alternative fixed business solutions provider in Croatia and delivers a diverse product offering, focussed on delivering serivces to the business segment. Metronet offers data, voice, managed IT and cloud services to its approximately 4,300 business customers, who generated 90 percent of Metronet total revenues in 2014 and 2015. One of the key strengths of Metronet is its network; it operates more than 4 thousand kilometers of optical fiber network in 66 cities, thereby reaching approximately 85% of all business customers in Croatia. In 2015, Metronet generated revenues and an EBITDA of approximately EUR 28 mn and EUR 12 mn respectively.

“Metronet is a company with the highest customer satisfaction level in the business segment and thanks to its customer centric company culture, high level of expertize and robust infrastructure has great potential for future growth. The combination of Vipnet and Metronet will create stronger competition on the market and one of the strongest B2B convergent players in Croatia. With this acquistion, Vipnet is significantly strengthening its expansion platform in the B2B segment and we are also comitted to increase our competitiveness in the area of both business telecommunication and ICT services,” said Jiří Dvorjančanský, CEO of Vipnet.

Besides the next generation network, Metronet also has two data centers that provide the company with strong ICT capabilities supplemented by advanced ICT products and services portfolio. Total capital investments undertaken by Metronet since inception in 2005 amount to 85 million EUR. “We are happy that Vipnet is becoming our partner for the future. As one of the first alternative operators on the Croatian market, Vipnet has the needed strength and experience to give Metronet an additional growth and development boost. I am proud to say that Metronet will continue, stronger then ever, to offer extensive business segment positioning with the focus on customer satisfaction. I believe this will prove to be a strong foundation for future growth,” said Zeljko Lukac, CEO of Metronet.

In the near future, Metronet will continue to deliver its services under the same brand.