Cable TV / Distribution

Med Telecom/Auna Group

At the time of BCE’s involvement, Med Telecom/Auna Group was a cable television operator and telecoms CLEC based in key cities in the Southern Valencia region of Spain. It owned a long-established broadband cable system in Elche, plus smaller franchises in Alicante and two suburbs of Valencia. These networks entitled Med Telecom to renewable cable licences and gave it a platform to develop additional telecoms networks and services. Med Telecom had a telecom operator licence covering the Elche and Alicante urban regions, and it was building a modern network, optimised for voice, data, IP and television services.

In December 2002, Med Telecom was merged into the leading Spanish cable television operator AUNA Telecomunicaciones, in an equity swap. This stake was subsequently exchanged in May 2004 for a stake in AUNA Group, which also owned Amena, Spain’s third largest mobile operator. The mobile operations, Amena, were sold to France Telecom in July 2005 and the fixed line and cable TV assets of Auna Group were sold to ONO in November 2005, completing in December 2005.

TES / Karneval

Founded in 1989 as the first cable company in the Czech Republic, Karneval operated cable television systems throughout the Czech Republic and northern regions of Bohemia. When BCEE invested in April 1997, Karneval networks covered over 50 towns and it was the second largest cable operator in the country. Karneval franchises comprised of 500,000 households, approximately 70% of which were high density apartment complexes typical of former communist countries. Upon investment, BCEE sourced the acquisition of the second largest cable TV operator in the Czech Republic, resulting in a combined entity with over 250,000 subscribers.

PenneCom

PenneCom B.V. is a Netherlands-based telecommunications holding company. The company provides financing, management advisory services, including placement of executives, network engineering, equipment supplier negotiation, capital resource planning, and systems development and integration. PenneCom focuses its holdings on Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovenia.

Regal Entertainment Group

Regal Entertainment Group operates the largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,705 screens in 540 theatres in 37 states and the District of Columbia as of December 2, 2010, with over 244 million annual attendees for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009. Our geographically diverse circuit includes theatres in 43 of the top 50 U.S. designated market areas. We operate multi-screen theatres and have an average of 12.4 screens per location, which is well above the North American motion picture exhibition industry 2009 average of 6.6 screens per location. We develop, acquire and operate multi-screen theatres primarily in mid-sized metropolitan markets and suburban growth areas of larger metropolitan markets throughout the U.S.

BKS Capital Partners

BKS Czech CATV

BKS acquired three small cable operators in the Czech Republic. Known as Amos, HBTV and Telto, they have a combined total of around 50,000 subscribers. BKS, which is based in Prague but has interests, plans to acquire several more small operators in the Czech Republic, where the cable market is dominated by UPC.

Altnet, 3C Plc, Zephyr Telecommunications

Formus Communications at the time of investment, Formus Communications was a 100% venture-backed company focused on acquiring local multi-point distribution service (LMDS) licenses in markets in Europe and internationally. Its wireless local loop services, built around datacoms and Internet connectivity, were aimed at markets where the limitations of incumbent fixed wire telcos had created high demand among businesses and, to a lesser extent, residential users for alternative data/Internet and voice solutions. The company had licenses and wireless spectrum in a range of European countries including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Spain, Norway, Finland and Ireland. The company went into administration in 2000.