There has been extensive reporting about United Group and our news operations in Serbia. Unfortunately, some this has been intertwined with a shareholder dispute, resulting in speculation and misleading information being published in the press.

In October 2025, the Enterprise Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam rejected the petition of United Group's minority shareholder, Dragan Šolak, to be re-instated in his role at the company. This confirmed what had been clear all along: the litigation in the Netherlands was never a genuine governance dispute, but another in a long line of distractions orchestrated by Mr Šolak for his own ends. Having lost his influence and income, Mr Šolak sought to stage a “crisis” of his own making. The Court was able to see through it.

United Group is functioning effectively under new leadership, with formal governance structures, a transitional Executive Committee, clear reporting lines and oversight that were absent under Mr Šolak's leadership. The Group remains focused on running the businesses well and delivering value for all stakeholders - free from the distractions of one shareholder's personal campaign.

This Q&A sets out, in one place, what we stand for, what we have done since June, and what comes next.

This page will be regularly updated.

The underlying performance of United Group's portfolio companies remains strong as recently reported in 9M 2025 results, with year-on-year growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDAal and a further reduction in leverage. For the first nine months of 2025, revenue increased by 3% year-on-year to approximately €2.0 billion and Adjusted EBITDAal grew by 7% to approximately €680 million, with last-twelve-month revenue reaching €2.7 billion (up 4% year-on-year) and last-twelve-month Adjusted EBITDAal €909 million (up 9% year-on-year). As at 30 September 2025, net leverage based on last two quarters annualised Adjusted EBITDAal decreased to 4.3x, compared to 4.7x as at 30 June 2025, while gross leverage based on last two quarters annualised Adjusted EBITDAal decreased to 4.4x, from 4.8x over the same period. This reflects the strength of management teams in our key portfolio companies and their hard work in building and growing excellent businesses over the last 25 years.

Following the sale of its Serbian assets earlier this year, the Group is now more clearly focused on its core EU operations and growth businesses in telecommunications, media and technology. The portfolio has been simplified, and management attention is concentrated on the key portfolio companies in Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia.

In parallel, the Group has continued to strengthen its leadership and governance framework. Recent senior appointments - including Dr. Kim Kyllesbech Larsen as Chief Technology and Information Officer, Bruce Humphreys as new Senior Vice President Human Capital and Dejan Kocić as Interim CEO of United Cloud - support the execution of United Group's technology and innovation agenda.

On 9 December 2025, United Group B.V. announced a successful completion of an offering of its euro-denominated notes maturing in January 2032 for a total principal amount of €400 million. The successful offering reflects continued support from the Group's bondholders and the strength of demand for United Group's credit in the euro bond markets.

News independence is sacrosanct to the current management and the majority shareholder BC Partners, and will never be influenced by any political interference or considerations.

Editorial choices for N1 and Nova are taken by the editorial teams, not by United Group executives, and there has been no interference by current management. This is clearly demonstrated by recent news reporting at N1 and Nova.

United Group and its majority shareholder, BC Partners, have been working on a model to secure and fortify the editorial independence of N1 and Nova news channels.

Measures under consideration include strengthened editorial charters, non interference covenants, channel level independence oversight, and an external ombudsperson function. In early July, two leading international advisers were engaged to support this work.

The objective is to ensure that editorial independence remains robust and insulated from non-business and political considerations.

The Group’s current management has never had any plans to sell its news assets to Telekom Srbija, or any other state-linked entity. The only discussions that have taken place involving the potential sale of N1 and Nova were held under the previous management.

Any such sale is clearly not aligned with the Group’s priority of safeguarding independence while enhancing resilience, efficiency and performance across portfolio companies.

No. United Group’s current management has never had any plans whatsoever to sell N1 or Nova to Telekom Srbija.

We will continue to review our non-news, non-core businesses and their role within the Group. They do not affect the newsrooms.

Our aim with the news titles is straightforward. Keep them independent, keep them viable, and give editors and reporters the space to do their jobs.

No one outside the company has authority over our staffing or editorial decisions. Post-sale conversations with Telekom Srbija were business discussions, which were operational and time-limited. They did not concern newsroom matters.

Neither Telekom Srbija nor any other third party has exerted pressure on United Group to remove any employee, and we have made no commitment to do so.

The current management and the majority shareholder BC Partners will never be influenced by any political interference or considerations. United Group is a commercial enterprise, focused on driving value creation across portfolio companies through sound and ethical business-driven decisions.

We are not seeking favours or a political deal with anyone, and we have no reason to do so.

United Group is a leading multi-play telecommunications and media company in Southeastern Europe, with EBITDA of c.€1 billion.

Earlier this year, United Group divested the largest part of its Serbian business. Our remaining businesses in Serbia represent a small share of Group profitability, and news in Serbia makes up an even smaller part. Our portfolio consists of companies in Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, with the first two accounting for around 70% of Group EBITDA. We have no strategic reason whatsoever to pursue political accommodation.

As stated above, all editorial decisions of news outlets owned by us sit with the news organisations, and we have no intention of selling our Serbian news assets to Telekom Srbija or winding them down unlike the previous management team.

The recording that appeared online was made unlawfully, is incomplete and questions remain about elements of its authenticity. It is a fragment from a long series of private business discussions, stripped of its context and misinterpreted in some reporting.

In early 2025 Telekom Srbija acquired certain telecom businesses from United Group. As is standard after a sale, there are transitional services and handover workstreams that require practical coordination between the companies. It is in this context that the conversation between Mr Miller and Mr Lucic took place.

The phrases in question referred to the process of divestment of United Group’s non-core assets as we streamline our operations and focus on telecommunications, media, technology and cloud services businesses across our markets. It does not refer to closing newsrooms or to editorial policy.

After the sale earlier this year, Telekom Srbija raised concerns about the conduct of Aleksandra Subotić, who is not a member of the editorial staff at any United Group news organisation, and these are being investigated in line with our policies and procedures.

There has been no agreement with Telekom Srbija or anyone else to dismiss any United Group employee. Staffing decisions are taken inside United Group, in line with our policies and applicable law.

Summer Parent Sàrl, United Group's ultimate parent company, appointed new management on 16 June 2025 to drive value creation, sound governance and operational focus across the portfolio.

The leadership change was carried out following the sale of the largest part of United Group's Serbian business and ahead of a potential divestment of our operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

By streamlining our operations, we are focusing on our European telecommunications, media, technology and cloud services businesses across our core markets.

The first weeks have been spent listening and engaging with executives across our portfolio companies. The leadership team has visited operations in our key markets, and held meetings with senior managers. We are grateful to colleagues who have made the time to meet.

Since June, we have been working hard to implement a number of critical corporate governance changes:

The objective is to embed durable controls swiftly and smoothly so that teams can focus on running their businesses.

Once these changes are embedded, they will make us stronger and more effective.

The Executive Committee is a forum where ultimate management decisions are made regarding the daily management of the Group. It is a transitional body composed of Group senior management, which portfolio CEOs, Executive Directors and VPs join to participate in decision making relating to their areas of responsibility and accountability.

Important decisions taken by the Executive Committee will be communicated to the wider group, enhancing transparency.

The governance and management changes since June have inevitably required some personnel changes. Practically all employees remain in their roles and will continue to do so. The Group’s current management is committed to working with excellent senior management of our portfolio companies in the best interests of the Group. Our focus is to put clear reporting and decision-making in place so colleagues have certainty about roles and responsibilities.

For the avoidance of doubt, there have been no changes to editorial staff at United Group’s news titles. There has been no agreement with Telekom Srbija or anyone else to fire any United Group employee.

In light of ongoing change, a number of issues have been raised, including in letters circulated by some executives.

We take the concerns expressed seriously, which is why we have written to colleagues with a full response. We have also set out our stance on editorial independence in a recent press statement: https://united.group/united-group-responds-to-misinformation/

In any transition it is natural for colleagues to hold different views. We are encouraged that the vast majority of our portfolio management teams have been supportive of the approach we are taking.

As noted above, we have been exploring ways to secure independence of our media titles, both editorial and economic. Once these measures are implemented, we believe it will be clear to all that we have delivered a more sustainable and independent news business.

We will continue to rely on the excellent leadership teams of our portfolio companies to run the businesses well and deliver value for all stakeholders, including colleagues and customers.

The Group’s current management and majority shareholder are focused on enhancing value creation and supporting the running of businesses across the entire portfolio in the best interest of all stakeholders. Our strategy remains driving market-leading organic revenue and profit growth by bringing the best converged solutions to our customers, enabled by continuous investment in high-quality infrastructure, innovative technology and differentiated content.

Continuity is a priority. We have committed that operating subsidiaries will receive the support they need to maintain service for customers and colleagues. Since June we have been implementing governance improvements described above. As this programme beds in, our focus remains on running the business well and supporting teams so they can keep delivering for all stakeholders. We will communicate material updates as they arise.

We are pressing ahead with the work we have set out, and that includes ongoing dialogue and transparency. We will update this page as that work progresses.

There are established channels in place and employees should use them to raise any concerns they may have. Journalists should use their newsroom standards and complaints processes and speak to editorial leadership. Partners and media can use the contacts listed on this page.