Bulgaria's top cable providers Eurocom and CableTel, which merged earlier in the year after the acquisition by Swedish investment fund EQT V, have been rebranded as Blizoo.
Sweden-based private equity firm EQT acquired two of Bulgaria's major cable TV and Internet operators in a EUR 210 M deal at the end of October last year and merged them to form the country's biggest cable operator.
Under the deals EQT through its EQT V fund acquired 100% of Eurocom from US private equity firm Warburg Pincus and 70% of privately-owned CableTel.
CableTel's other shareholder Ron Finley remained minority shareholder by rolling over his 30% shareholding in CableTel into the merged company and investing further equity.
“Blizoo has the ambition to turn into Bulgaria's leading digital television operator and the biggest broadband Internet provider,” said Istvan Polony, chief executive of Blizoo.
EQT has a strong track record of fostering growth and value creation in the more than 70 companies that it has invested in over the last 14 years.
EQT has previously developed Swedish cable TV operators StjärnTV and Com Hem into leading local providers of digital TV, broadband and telephony - so called triple play.
Currently, EQT owns a leading German cable TV operator Kabel BW which has recorded significant growth and successfully developed the triple play concept in Germany.