MANAGEMENT of the Petit Press publishing house and representatives of the Prvá Slovenská Investičná Spoločnosť (PSIS), NAMAV, the subsidiary of the SITA newswire and Penta Investments Limited financial group closed negotiations over the shareholder relations in Petit Press. The PSIS will be controlling the majority, 55-percent share, SITA reported on November 5.
The companies PSIS and NAMAV/Penta will close the deal over the transfer of a 5-percent share in favour of PSIS, and also the shareholder agreement based on the principles of the signed memorandum which should be closed in December 2014 at the latest. The memorandum states that PSIS has the managing power, and NAMAV/Penta will have supervising power over the publishing house.
The strategy in the area of producing the content for the media will be in the domain of the chair of the board of directors and co-founder of Sme, Alexej Fulmek.
The parties also expect that since NAMAV, financed by Penta, agreed to become the minor shareholder in Petit Press, it will not need a permit for the transaction issued by the Antitrust Office (PMÚ). Conversely, PSIS will check the need to notify the PMÚ about the takeover of majority in Petit Press, the statement reads.
The shareholders also informed about the preparation of the document that should guarantee the independent operation of the editorial teams and journalists in Petit Press. It will also anchor the principles of communication between the shareholders and editorial teams.
On October 14 the Rheinisch–Bergische Verlagsgesellschaft (RBVG) announced selling its 50 percent stock to NAMAV, the company that was represented by the SITA newswire and financed by Penta. Shortly after announcing the purchase, Matúš Kostolný, the editor-in-chief of Sme, and his four deputies submitted their resignation, arguing that the presence of Penta, a controversial financial group, will prevent them from doing their work freely.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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