BELGRADE – United Group company plans to sell its media business to Luxembourg-based European Future Media Investments, backed by Portuguese Investment Group Alpac Capital. According to the final version of the contract, which has not yet been signed, the fund will pay only 30 million euros for several television and other media outlets in the region, including N1, Nova S in Serbia, as well as media in Montenegro, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was reported by Raskrikavanje.rs.
The article notes that two Luxembourg-based companies agreed to sell Adria News company, which manages regional network of N1 and Nova, but also a number of affiliated companies in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro.
The final version of the purchase agreement has not yet been signed, but its details raise many questions, Raskrikavanje states.
The contract names Pedro Vargas David and Afonso Guerra as the customer’s contact persons. Pedro Vargas David is known to the public as the CEO of Alpac Capital, which became a major owner of Euronews channel, a European news channel that broadcasts programming in more than 12 languages.
The name of Pedro Vargas Davis has often been associated with former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in foreign media. Research by the Hungarian portal Direkt36, in cooperation with France’s Le Monde and Portugal’s Express, showed that the purchase of Euronews was partly financed by Hungarian state capital, but also by companies close to Viktor Orbán’s propaganda machine.
“A comprehensive reorganization must be carried out”
As stated in the document, seen by Raskrikavanje, before the finalization of the agreement, United Group has an obligation to carry out a comprehensive ” reorganization – under the “umbrella” of Adria News, the entire network of media will be consolidated: N1 Television (Serbia, Croatia, BiH), Adria news Production doo (Slovenia), Dan Graf (publisher of Danas daily), Vijesti television and web portal from Montenegro (51% share), Nova M (Montenegro) as well as United Media Digital (portal Nova.rs, Nova newspaper and Radar weekly, Serbia).
Alpac Capital will control both N1 and Nova S production through the same company. The agreement in which the disclosure is seen also stipulates that antitrust agencies in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina must approve the transaction.
Also, the deal cannot be completed without the consent of Luxembourg’s Media Ministry, which must be approved by Alpac Capital as the new owner.
All conditions must be met within seven months of signing the contract. Otherwise, either party may terminate the agreement.
The contract also provides for special “editorial independence” clauses. Upon acquisition, the buyer undertakes to preserve the editorial autonomy of the media and to comply with the European rules on media pluralism and the independence of newsrooms, Raskrikavanje.rs reports.
It also envisages the formation of an independent advisory body composed of international media professionals, which would monitor respect for freedom of expression, journalistic ethics and editorial independence.
Months of uncertainty surrounding Serbian media outlets critical of the government
United Group, a multinational media conglomerate which owns some of the last major media outlets in Serbia that are not under the influence of the government, stated on 19 February that it was reorganising its media operations, placing most of its Balkan media outlets under the newly-founded Adria News Network (ANN). Most of these outlets had previously operated under the United Media, whose director, Aleksandra Subotić, was dismissed.
Serbian television stations N1 and Nova S, daily Danas and weekly Radar, among others, are now operating under the new board of the ANN and the chief news executive, Brent Sadler, a former CNN journalist from the United Kingdom. These media outlets have provided the bulk of reporting critical of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party in recent years, and have thus been under consistent attacks by the highest state officials and pro-government media.
The reorganisation raised concerns in the Serbian public, which has, for a long time, suspected that the Serbian government had made a deal with the majority owner of the United Group, BC Partners, to curtail the critical reporting of these media outlets. Both Serbian officials and BC Partners have denied these speculations.
Nevertheless, in August 2025, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) released an audio recording of a telephone conversation between the United Group CEO, Stan Miller and Director of the state-owned Telekom Srbija Vladimir Lučić, in which they spoke about the dismissal of Aleksandra Subotić, CEO of the United Group-owned United Media.
The two men stated in the recording that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is seeking the dismissal of Aleksandra Subotić. This step has been realised in the meantime.
