RTL Group today announced that it has reached an agreement with Central European Media Enterprises (CME) for the sale of RTL Croatia. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.

The total consideration to be paid at closing amounts to €50 million. In addition, RTL Group will benefit from royalties under a long-term trademark license agreement with CME. RTL Group’s shareholders will benefit from the cash proceeds in line with the stated dividend policy. RTL Group was the majority shareholder of RTL Croatia since its foundation in 2004 and has fully owned the company since July 2015.

Elmar Heggen, COO and Deputy CEO of RTL Group, says: “We would like to thank the management and all employees of RTL Croatia for their performance, passion and commitment. Over the past 18 years, RTL Croatia has grown from the first commercial channel in the country into an entertainment company with a family of eight TV channels, digital services and its own music label. RTL Croatia’s journalistic offer is and will remain essential for the media pluralism in the country.”

Elmar Heggen continues: “With its clear regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe and its commitment to editorial independence and integrity, CME is well equipped to further develop RTL Croatia. The sale is in line with our consolidation strategy and the best strategic option for RTL Croatia, its dedicated team and our shareholders.”

“As a PPF company, we are always open to interesting ideas for growth and investment and see that the Adriatic is a growing region with exceptional potential. We have a very successful operation with Pro Plus in the region and I believe that these two Adriatic countries can work well in parallel. As in our other countries, we will focus on digitalization and local content creation, while continuing to excel in pluralistic and high-quality journalism,” said Didier Stoessel, CME CEO for Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

RTL Croatia’s three free-TV channels – RTL Televizija (family, general interest), RTL 2 (classic movies, series and sports) and RTL Kockica (children) – form the leading family of TV channels in Croatia, which is complemented by the pay-TV channels RTL Living, RTL Passion, RTL Crime and RTL Adria as well as RTL Croatia World, a dedicated channel for Croatians living abroad. The business unit also operates the streaming services Play and Play Premium, several digital services and the music label RTL Music.

For RTL Group, J.P. Morgan acted as transaction advisor and Wolf Theiss as legal counsel for the transaction.