Providence Equity-owned Latvian service providers to merge

Source: Alamy.com

Providence Equity Partners-owned Baltic media and telecoms outfit Bitė Group plans to merge its Latvian mobile unit Bitė Latvija, with local service provider Baltcom, which it acquired in 2020.

The merger will result in Baltcom being absorbed into Bitė Latvija, operating national mobile, fixed broadband and TV services.

Bitė acquired Baltcom in 2020 following approval of the purchase by the Latvian competition watchdog.

Bitė Group last year split into telecom and media holding companies, with the group’s telecom businesses in Latvia and Lithuania managed by Bite Group while its media companies across the three Baltic states were merged into All Media Group. The latter includes TV3 Group and its streaming service Go3.

Bitė Group posted service revenues of €112 million for Q3 2023, its most recently published figures, up 9% on the prior year comparative period. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was €48 million, up from €42 million.

“The merger of the two companies is a step closer to our long-term development goal – to strengthen Bitė’s position in the electronic communication services and ICT market, offering clients the widest portfolio of services. After the completion of the merger, the main beneficiaries will be our existing and future customers, who will be able to purchase internet services for home or office using optical or 5G network, popular Go3 television, voice services, various IoT and ICT solutions for business, as well as a wide range of devices in Bite’s outlets in one place, via online store and call centre,” said Arūnas Mickevicius, general director of Bitė Latvija.

“We are pleased to participate in this ambitious project and, together with Bite, become the first convergent operator in Latvia – using the extensive capabilities of our mobile and fixed networks. By combining our customer service capabilities, network infrastructure and business expertise, we will be able to offer a broad and superior range of services to the market. After the completion of the project, Baltcom customers will benefit from additional services available to them and a wide geographic coverage of Bitė’s stores with a rich selection of the most modern electronic services,” said Dmitrijs Nikitins, general director of Baltcom.