United Group commits to editorial independence of N1 and Nova in Serbia; Group's focus remains on operations, value and governance
LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- United Group rejects false and misleading claims that the Group is seeking to curtail or otherwise compromise the editorial independence of N1 and Nova TV channels in Serbia, or sell them to Telekom Srbija or entities linked to the Serbian state. These allegations are false.
Editorial independence
United Group's news businesses operate under a clear separation between commercial management and editorial decision making, and the company makes a clear distinction between editorial and executive staff.
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.
United Group is a commercial enterprise, focused on driving value creation across portfolio companies through sound and ethical business-driven decisions.
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, which has continued in an entirely independent manner.
What role the previous management played in influencing editorial decisions and news content to suit their own agenda remains an open question.
Some concerns have been raised by Telekom Srbija about the conduct of Aleksandra Subotic, 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.
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.
Founder and close associate pursued closure of Serbian TV channels in January 2025
Some recent media speculation about the Serbian news operations has been intertwined with an ongoing shareholder dispute.
Any suggestions that discussions to alter the structure of news assets or sell Serbian businesses originate from the current management are false and deliberately misleading.
Documented correspondence from January 2025 shows that the Group's founder and minority shareholder Dragan Šolak, via his long-time close associate Vladislav Ratajac, approached Telekom Srbija with proposals to:
- Take N1 and Nova off television in Serbia in return for a lump-sum of approximately €120 million. The news channels would have been removed from cable/satellite line-ups and run as internet-only channels;
- Sell the Serbian news assets to a third party;
- Sell other parts of the Serbian business to Telekom Srbija, such as Shoppster and D Express.
This is in addition to a €200 million bonus demanded by Šolak from Summer Parent, United Group's ultimate parent company, for purportedly facilitating the sale of United Group's Serbian businesses.
N1 and Nova editorial staff appear to have been kept in the dark about these pursuits.
The pursuits of Šolak and his representative Vladislav Ratajac were not adopted and do not reflect the strategy of the current management for the news business in Serbia.
Claims that the new leadership sought to "weaken" Serbia's independent news channels are false.
The very actions that Šolak and Ratajac now claim the Group is taking today, as reported in the press, were in fact devised and pursued by Šolak and Ratajac at the beginning of the year.
To be clear:
- Editorial independence is non-negotiable. Editorial decisions sit with the newsrooms. United Group's current management and majority shareholder BC Partners have not interfered in the editorial content of its news outlets.
- United Group's current management has never had any plans whatsoever to sell N1 or Nova to Telekom Srbija, or anyone else, unlike Šolak and his associates.
- Any inference, suggestion or reporting to the contrary is simply false.
The question is for what purpose, for what reason and to whose benefit this narrative is being advanced. - The company will not be drawn into politics or Šolak's personal agenda. The company's focus is running the business with operational discipline, strong governance, and clear accountability.
- The current management and majority shareholder have zero tolerance for interference with editorial independence, political interference, threats of violence against its journalistic staff or any of its 14,000 employees, of whom c. 4,000 work within United Media and c. 370 in the news businesses.
The underlying performance of United Group's portfolio companies remains strong as recently reported in H1 2025 results: revenues are up by 5%, EBITDA up by nearly 7%, with strong cash conversion.
Notes to editors
About United Group
United Group is a leading multi-play telecommunications and media company in Southeastern Europe, with annual revenue of €2.7 billion and EBITDA of c. €1 billion. Summer Parent Sàrl, United Group's ultimate parent company, decided to appoint 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. Our portfolio consists of companies in Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria, with the latter two accounting for around 70% of Group EBITDA. By streamlining our operations, we are focusing on our telecommunications, media, technology and cloud services businesses across our core markets in the EU.
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