Vučić Quietly Bought N1: New Name and Concept in the Works
The entire Adria News Network media group, including N1 Croatia, has been taken over via the Portuguese fund Alpac Capital, and Croatian institutions have yet to respond.
The entire Adria News Network media group, including N1 Croatia, has been taken over via the Portuguese fund Alpac Capital, and Croatian institutions have yet to respond.
Over the past decade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has pursued a systematic strategy of taking over the media space in Serbia, and the same model could now take root across the region, including Croatia. The Belgrade portal Raskrinkavanje has published a contract estimated at around 30 million euros, covering N1 in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenian operational networks, Nova TV in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the daily newspaper Danas, the weekly Radar, and a 51% stake in Montenegro's Vijesti.
This news network spans five countries and employs over a thousand people, reaching more than 16 million viewers or readers. In recent years, these outlets have been among the few to report impartially on protests in Serbia, providing a platform for students, the opposition, and investigative journalists.
The formal buyer of Adria News Network is the Luxembourg-based company European Future Media Investment, while Alpac Capital is a Portuguese investment firm. The fund is led by Pedro Vargas David, who previously worked as a consultant at McKinsey, was a professor, and served as Chairman of the Board of Euronews. Mario David, Pedro Vargas David's father, was a Member of the European Parliament from Portugal and also served as deputy leader of the European People's Party, as well as a longtime political ally of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
At a meeting on EU enlargement in Brussels in early November last year, Vučić referred to Mario David as his friend. Alpac had already acquired a majority stake in Euronews in 2022, and the media outlets Direkt 36, Le Monde, and Portugal's Expresso reconstructed the financing of that deal. Published documents show that 45 million euros came from Hungary's state investment fund Széchenyi Funds, with additional funds linked to Gyula Balásy's New Land Media, whose companies have received significant contracts from the Orbán administration for years.
Last month, an earlier decision by the Portuguese regulator CMVM was made public, imposing a fine of 137,000 euros on Alpac Capital, Pedro Vargas David, and his business partner Luis Costa Santos for 36 administrative violations related to identifying beneficial owners and the origin of funds. Reporters Without Borders has called for full disclosure of funding sources and effective guarantees for editorial independence before the deal is approved, but Alpac has not responded to inquiries about who the ultimate investors are.
In August last year, Serbia was under pressure from protests that N1 continuously broadcast. At that time, United Group's CEO, Stan Miller, and the director of the state-owned Telekom Srbija, Vladimir Lučić, had a phone conversation. According to independent Serbian media reports, in the recording, Lučić speaks of Vučić's dissatisfaction and attributes the initiative to remove longtime United Media director Aleksandra Subotić to the Serbian president. Miller responds that the company in Serbia must be made "very small" and then separated.
United Group founder Dragan Šolak lost his position at the helm of the company in June 2025. In November, editors and directors of the group's media segment attempted to buy out the media they manage, but their offer was rejected in December. On February 2 this year, part of United Group signed a confidentiality agreement with Alpac, and 17 days later, a new company called Adria News Network was presented. At the end of February, Subotić was dismissed, and two months later, Igor Božić, the head of the N1 Serbia newsroom, left. At the end of May, it was announced that the entire Adria News Network would go to Alpac.
Šolak and former United Group director Viktoriya Boklag, as minority shareholders, have initiated legal proceedings before the High Court in London, claiming that the decision was made without respecting their rights and that they were not informed about the negotiations. United Group rejects these allegations, emphasizing that the deal is legal and includes safeguards for the newsrooms.
The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) has expressed "serious concern over changes in the management of Adria News Network (ANN) media," stressing that they were carried out before the regulatory process on the takeover was completed. Luxembourg's Independent Audiovisual Media Authority (ALIA) confirmed today that the transaction has not yet been approved and that the procedure for issuing an opinion on the change of control over ANN is still ongoing.
NUNS emphasizes that "the focus must be on journalists and other media workers, more than a thousand employees in ANN across the region, their labor and professional rights, job security" and their right "to be informed in a timely and complete manner about changes that directly affect their work and the future of the newsrooms." The dismissals of directors, they say, "justifiably raise the question of whether de facto control over the media is being established before the competent authorities have completed their assessment of the transaction." Yesterday, directors were dismissed at United Media Digital, Adria News, Dan Graf, and Adria News Nova S.
In recent weeks, Alpac representatives have been touring the region and the newsrooms, and it is being confirmed behind the scenes that they are changing the name and concept of these media outlets. N1 is expected to cease operations and become Euronews in all countries, which already has franchise channels in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, where the partner is Arena Channels Group, a company owned by the state-owned Telekom Srbija.
According to some guidelines, in Croatia, the program will be completely overhauled and will promote the EU enlargement agenda, with the expectation of financial support from the European Commission for this purpose. Croatian N1 could retain some independence, even get a "boost," but only for ideological topics, as Vučić's goal is to spread paranoia about the resurgence of Ustasha ideology in the country.
Croatia is behaving as if this is someone else's regional problem, even though the transaction includes N1 Croatia. In January this year, Telekom Srbija took over Mondo INC, a company linked to Kurir publisher Igor Žeželj, and with it the Croatian business portfolio. Mondo owns a 26% stake in Zagreb's Midas Network, an advertising network on which most portals in Croatia depend.
The Agency for Electronic Media has so far not published any decision or opinion on the change of ownership of N1 Croatia, and the Ministry of Culture and Media has also not initiated a more serious public debate. There is no publicly visible procedure by the Croatian Competition Agency (AZTN) to explain the broader aspect of concentration, nor has the parliamentary committee responsible for media turned the transaction into a political issue. The public has no information about any potential security analysis.
Elections in Serbia are expected to be called in September or early October, with the vote taking place in October or November. During this period, the regular conclusion of Alpac's purchase of Adria News Network is also expected. Since the spring of 2025, Vučić has mentioned early elections more than 30 times.
