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The European Commission has allowed Peter Kellner to buy the TV, the deal will end on October 13
BTV became Czech on October 13 after the European Commission allowed billionaire Petr Kellner to acquire Central European Media Enterprises (SME), the owner of BTV Media Group, through its PPF Group.
The permission from the European Commission for the Protection of Competition, received late Tuesday afternoon, was practically the last step before the final completion of the agreement.
Shortly after its announcement, SME announced that the purchase is expected to close on October 13. Then, for each share of the company you can receive the amount of $ 4.58. The SME, however, explains that it is a “forecast statement”, which means that due to unforeseen circumstances it is possible to change the date.
However, expectations are that BTV may have a new manager the next day, people close to the 24 Chasa deal explained. According to them, the current boss, the Austrian Florian Scala, is almost certain to be replaced.
Not surprisingly, however, Christoph Minusch, the current CEO of SME, remains on the new board of directors. Other members of the SME board are likely to be retained. Now it is known that some of them will go to Time Warner, the American company that owns SMEs, which are part of the giant AT&T.
Krassimir Gergov,
minority
owner of
BTV Media
group “, also
will remain
on the board of directors of the Bulgarian company. He will keep the 6 percent he owns, he told 24 Chasa himself.
However, all changes to the board of directors must be recorded with the court before they go into effect. According to people familiar with the matter, this could take about a month. Also, all assumptions can turn out to be wrong or changed at the last minute, sources say.
On BTV
welcome
the news without
commentary
Currently, half of the TV staff continue to work from home, as has been the case in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The European Commission unconditionally approves the proposed acquisition and concludes that the agreement will not create competition problems in the European Economic Area. This is stated in the official announcement of the leadership in the EC, which is responsible for competition, the European equivalent of the CPC.
Before making the decision, the commission spoke with a large number of companies and competitors of the Czech group. Even for Bulgaria, there were initial concerns about whether the new owner (The waiter also owns the telecommunications company Telenor.)
will not stop at
on sale
advertising time
on your own
competitors
The official statement on this occasion says: “The Commission considers that the new owner will not have the opportunity or the financial incentive to stop selling advertising time to its competitors. The Commission also believes that there are enough alternative TV channels with comparable audiences and a comparable advertising inventory that will remain on the market. “
The BTV deal was delayed, likely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Initially, the SME expected its sale to be completed in June. After that didn’t happen, it was speculated that Kellner might not send the documents to the EC at all, and therefore postpone the deal to get a better price. In the end, these scenarios turned out to be wrong.
In addition to the Bulgarian media group, SME owns televisions in 4 other countries: in the Czech Republic, where it controls the leading TV station NOVA, in Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
In July, the SME explained that the sale should be completed by October 27, exactly one year after the announcement of the $ 2.1 billion deal. In our country, the news was announced on October 28, 2019, the day of the local elections.
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