Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar will have new minority co-owners. Its parent telecom holding Veon is buying a third (33.75%) of the American streaming company Jungo TV, paying for it not only with money but also with Kyivstar's own shares.
Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar will have new minority co-owners. Its parent telecom holding Veon is buying a third (33.75%) of the American streaming company Jungo TV, paying for it not only with money but also with its own Kyivstar shares.
This is reported by Forbes Ukraine with reference to the quarterly report and press release of Veon.
The total cost of the acquisition is estimated at $47.3 million. In order not to spend a lot of cash needed for the current operation of the business, Veon chose a combined payment scheme: $5 million will be paid in cash, the rest will be covered by the transfer of about 2.35 million shares of Kyivstar Group (this is 1.22% of the share owned by Veon, which currently controls 83.6% of the operator).
For the deal, Kyivstar shares were valued at $18 apiece (although they were trading at $13.09 on the stock exchange on November 11). The owners of Jungo TV will be able to sell these shares no earlier than a year after the deal closes and only gradually.
Founded in 2016 in Los Angeles, Jungo TV creates and distributes free TV channels with advertising (via Amazon Prime Video, Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, etc.), has its own streaming apps and a network of 400 YouTube channels. Its content is watched in more than 60 countries, including the US, Canada, India and the Philippines.
Veon's main interest is Jungo TV's rights to broadcast the 24-hour AWSN channel dedicated to women's sports (UEFA football, FIBA basketball, judo, etc.), co-founded by actress Whoopi Goldberg.
Veon already has its own video services in five countries of presence (including Kyivstar TV in Ukraine, on whose content in 2025 they spent $12 million). Adding rights to women's sports will help attract a new niche audience and generate additional revenue from digital entertainment. The acquisition of a third of the shares gives the holding the right to vote and influence the development strategy of Jungo TV.
By the standards of Veon Group, whose capitalization reaches $5.28 billion, this deal is relatively small. During 2026 alone, Kyivstar itself made several much larger purchases in Ukraine: it acquired the drug booking service Tabletki.ua for $160 million, six solar power plants in the Lviv region for $80 million, and cloud provider GigaCloud for almost $50 million.
