United Group founders warn of continuation of governance crisis in group after Dutch court decision

This allows BC Partners to avoid facing a proper investigation into their conduct and the governance crisis they have created at United Group, Solak and Boklag have warned in a joint statement.

They recalled that nine out of 15 group executives (VPs and executive directors) have left United Group and that the new CEO Stan Miller and his team "are now responsible for the operations and performance of the Group."

"We will continue to exercise our rights as significant minority shareholders and we hope that the new management delivers the same exceptional results for all stakeholders, as we did for all those years," they said.

As founders and shareholders, Solak and Boklag stressed, "we care deeply about the future of United Media and remain concerned by BC Partners’ and United Group’s plans to undermine the editorial independence of N1 and Nova S, the last free media in Serbia."

"We will be monitoring the situation closely and hope that it will be investigated properly by the relevant authorities," they said.

BC Partners, the majority owner of United Group, suddenly dismissed Solak and Boklag in June this year.

They warned then that the majority owner created a severe management crisis, abused majority control and thus jeopardized the interest of the company, minority shareholders and media freedom within United Media, which BC Partners denied.