M7 Group

M7 Group (Canal+ Luxembourg s.a.r.l.) is a Luxembourg-based television provider which operates several direct broadcast satellite pay TV platforms: HD Austria in Austria, TéléSAT Numérique and TV Vlaanderen in Belgium, Skylink in Czech Republic and Slovakia, CanalDigitaal in the Netherlands, Focus Sat in Romania and UPC Direct in Hungary. It also operates a terrestrial pay television platform in Flanders, Belgium and offers B2B multimedia services.

M7 Group (Canal+ Luxembourg s.a.r.l.)
Société à responsabilité limitée
IndustryMedia
FoundedOctober 2009
HeadquartersGrand-Duchy of Luxembourg
Area served
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Germany
Key people
Hans Troelstra (CEO)
ServicesPay TV
Satellite television
Terrestrial television
Streaming television
Broadcasting
IPTV
Revenue€318.9 million (2018) [1]
OwnerCanal+ Group
Number of employees
180 [2]
Websitewww.m7group.eu
M7 Group previous logo

History

The private equity firm Astorg acquired a majority of the company in July 2014 for EUR 350 million[3] via its Fund V from Providence and Airbridge Investments.[4] Providence is a Private Equity investment firm and Airbridge Investments is the holding company of executives Hans Wolfert and Cees Bohnenn.[5] In December 2017 the company became fully owned by Astorg. The exit of minority shareholders took place at the time of an EUR 570 million debt refinancing which allowed to pay a dividend of EUR 175 million to the former shareholders.[6]

On 30 July 2014, its subsidiary M7 Deutschland bought the German B2B satellite platform Kabelkiosk from Eutelsat.[7]

In 2016 M7 Group closed the Hungarian satellite platform Hello HD.

In December 2018 the company announced the purchase of Liberty Global's satellite operations located in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for EUR 180 million.[8] This sale was prcoesed after necessary permissions, in spring 2019.[9] Freesat platform acquired in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been integrated into Skylink.

On May 28, 2019, it announced that Vivendi's Canal+ Group will take over M7 Group for 1.1 billion euros.[10] The sale was effectuated in September 2019 after the European Commission gave its permission.[11]

M7 Group announced that Diveo, the German satellite platform which was launched in February 2018, will be closed on 30 November 2019. In july 2020 M7 Group S.A. merged with UPC DTH S.a.r.l. and changed its official name into Canal+ Luxembourg S.a.r.l. The brandname M7 remains however in use for the group with the slogan 'A Canal+ Group company'.

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References
  1. "M7 Group ziet omzet in 2018 met 2% groeien naar EUR 319 miljoen". www.telecompaper.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  2. "Our investments - Astorg". www.astorg.com. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  3. "Our investments - Astorg". www.astorg.com. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  4. "RLPC-Astorg acquires majority stake in TV firm M7". Reuters. 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  5. "Providence koopt meerderheid holding Canal Digitaal BV | DutchMedia Blog 2003-2012". Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  6. "M7 closes €570 million dividend recap". Reuters. 2017-12-21. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  7. "M7 Deutschland buys KabelKiosk from Eutelsat". BroadbandTV News. 2014-05-20.
  8. "Liberty Global to sell Eastern Europe DTH operations to M7". Reuters. 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  9. "M7 wins UPC DTH takeover approval". BroadbandTV News. 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  10. "Vivendi's Canal Plus to buy M7 for 1 billion euros to expand its European reach". www.reuters.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  11. "Merger Cases M.9416 Vivendi - BOLLORE GROUP M7 GROUP". www.europe.eu. 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
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