The Slovak private equity fund Sandberg Capital has agreed with its joint venture partner DanubiaTel to sell its 50% stake in Swan, the country’s largest alternative telecommunications operator on the Slovak market.
The share in Swan is taken over by its sister company Swan Mobile, a member of the DanubiaTel group. It also operates the mobile operator 4ka. The transaction will mark the end of Sandberg Capital’s involvement in the telecom market after a period of four years.
"We joined the joint venture as the owner of the then operator Benestra and DanubiaTel as a shareholder of Swan. Our common goal was to consolidate the telecommunications market as well as increase the value of Swan through post-merger synergies. The companies complemented the portfolio of services they offered perfectly. We managed to overcome our investment goals, which we set, so the exit was the natural culmination of our mission, " said Sandberg partner Michal Rybovič.
According to a press release, the merger of Swan and Benestra created the largest alternative telecommunications operator in 2017, which was owned exclusively by Slovak capital.
After the merger, the company built on the strengths of individual companies in order to gain an even stronger position in the market, it said. Today, Swan is the second largest provider of fixed telecommunications services in the business sector and its turnover reaches almost 100 million euros.
"The planned merger of Swan and Swan Mobile into one entity is planned for the turn of 2021 and 2022. It is a natural step towards the effort to provide customers with convergent products, ie fixed and mobile services from one supplier and on one invoice," said the Chairman of the Board of both companies Juraj Ondriš.
