Bitė Group


Bitė Group is a Lithuanian telecommunication conglomerate currently owned by Providence Equity Partners since 2016, having been owned by TDC in Denmark until 2007 and by Mid Europa Partners between 2007 and 2016. Of Baltic states, Bitė mainly operates in telecommunication sector in Lithuania and Latvia, but through its media business TV3 Group, it has an additional presence in Estonia.
Bitė Group is a long standing regional partner of Vodafone, having first signed a Partner Network Agreement for its Lithuanian mobile service in 2003. The agreement was extended to its Latvian service in 2006.
For years, Bitė Group has been represented by Bite Finance International B.V., a company registered in the Netherlands. Since acquisition by US-based equity investment firm Providence Equity in 2016, it's represented by PLT VII Finance S.à r.l. registered in Luxembourg whose ultimate owner is Providence Equity GP L.P.. which is registered in the Cayman Islands.

History

Bitė began its operation in Lithuania in 1995.
On 21 July 2003, Bitė signed a Partner Network Agreement for Lithuania with British multinational mobile telecommunication company Vodafone.
In 2005, Bitė entered Latvian market. Following this, Bitė's Partner Network Agreement with Vodafone was extended to its Latvian service in April 2006.
In early 2007, Danish company TDC announced the sale of Bitė Group to Mid Europa Partners.
In December 2015, Mid Europa Partners announced that it was selling the group to Providence Equity Partners; the sale was completed in February 2016.
In March 2017, it was announced that Providence was acquiring Viasat's Baltic media and satellite television business for €115 million from Swedish company Modern Times Group, which was in the process of transforming itself into a video game company. In May 2017, it was emerged that Providence-owned Bitė would be the party to purchase MTG assets in question. The sale was completed in October 2017. The newly formed pan-Baltic media company, initially named All Media Baltics, was renamed TV3 Group in 2019.

Operations

Lithuania

Bitė began its operation as a mobile network operator in 1995 with its services over GSM, becoming the second company to provide mobile telephony in Lithuania.
Bitė subsequently launched Enhanced [Data rates for GSM Evolution|EDGE] services in 2004, HSDPA services in 2006, and LTE-A service in 2014.
On 1 December 2025, Bitė will switch off 3G network.

Latvia

Bitė entered Latvian telecommunications market in 2005 through its subsidiary Bite Latvija.

Estonia

Bitė Group is yet to have a presence in Estonian telecommunications market, but it has expressed its intention to launch their business there once they win the Estonian 5G spectrum auction.
Meanwhile, TV3 Group's Estonian subsidiary AS TV Play Baltics operates direct-to-home satellite television service Home3 for customers there and two other Baltic countries.

Assets

;Telecommunications
  • Lithuania: UAB Bitė Group
  • * UAB Bitė Lietuva
  • * UAB TeleTower
  • Latvia: SIA Bite Latvija
  • * SIA TeleTower
  • * SIA Unistars
;Media
  • Estonia: AS All Media Eesti
  • * Media Invest Holding AS
  • * All Media Digital OÜ
  • * Buduaar Media OÜ
  • * Artist Media OÜ
  • Latvia: SIA All Media Latvia
  • Lithuania: UAB All Media Lithuania
  • * UAB All Media Radijas
  • * UAB All Media Digital
  • AS Go3 Baltics
  • Bite Broadcasting Services Ltd