Romtelecom Strikes Deal To Take Over DTH Platform Boom TV’s Assets, Clients

06.01.2011 By Tudor Ioana Raluca

Romanian telecom operator Romtelecom has signed a deal to take over the clients and assets of digital television Boom TV, Transylvania Insolvency House, the legal administrator of the television station, said Wednesday.

"Romtelecom has already paid part of the money and the final price of the transaction will be set at the end of the client transfer process. (…) The transfer of clients to the DOLCE TV platform (operated by Romtelecom e.n.) will start in June and will be carried out gradually to be completed in a few months," the insolvency house said in a press release.

In March, Romtelecom, owned by Greek group OTE, said it signed a contract with DTH Television Group to take over Boom TV's assets and clients.

The transaction's price was to be determined considering the number of clients transferred to the telecom operator.

Boom TV was launched in April 2006 and is the sixth DTH (Direct to Home) digital television platform in Romania, alongside Digi TV (operated by RCS & RDS), Focus Sat (operated by cable service company UPC), AKTA (by Digital Cable Systems) and Dolce (operated by Romtelecom).

The number of Boom TV clients exceeded 230,000 in March 2009, to decrease below 100,000 at the end of 2010, while the overall digital television market registers about 6 million users.

In May 2010, DTH Television Grup filed an insolvency request after Unicredit Tiriac Bank, Grecos Energy Telecomunicatii and Eurocom Networks & Technologies asked the court to declare Boom TV bankrupt.

In the fall of 2008, DTH Television Grup said it borrowed EUR18.5 million from Unicredit Tiriac Bank for short- and medium-term investments in the digital television platform.

The main shareholders of DTH Television Grup are Blackdzaar Limited (registered in Cyprus) - 42.477%, Elran (D.D.) Investments Ltd. (Israel) - 25.257%, Sandhirst Ltd (Cyprus) - 18.225% and Globalicom - Trade Ltd (Israel) - 10.038%.

The main shareholder of Blackdazaar Limited is RP Explorer Master Fund, an investment fund represented by Louis Silver.