United Group grows on back of Wind Hellas acquisition

South-Eastern European pay TV and broadband service provider United Group saw its revenue-generating unit base rise by 38% in the first quarter on the back of its acquisition of Greece’s Wind Hellas and Croatia’s Optima Telecom, along with acquisitions in Bulgaria and organic growth.

United Group grew its RGU base to just over 15 million, while homes passed grew to 4.5 million on the back of the Wind Hellas acquisition.

The group’s cable customer base increased more modestly, growing from just over two million to 2.143 million.

The company had 1.637 million cable pay TV customers at the end of the quarter, up 9%, and 1.59 million broadband customers, up 14%. DTH pay TV customers declined by 1% to just over a million, but OTT customers grew by 11% to 141,000.

United Group saw big growth in its mobile base, which rose by 49% on the back of the Wind Hellas acquisition to 6.649 million, and in customers provided with services outside its footprint, a number that grew by 137% to 2.738 million.

Revenues grew by 40% to €616.8 million, while adjusted EBITDA was up 34% to €215.3 million.

BC Partners-owned United Group did not provide a breakdown of like-for-like comparisons in the numbers it published in its quarterly bondholders’ report. Wind Hellas had approximately 3.4 million customers at the end of the quarter, while Optima Telecom had approximately 286,000 subscribers.