THE PENTA Investments financial group is allegedly close to signing an agreement over acquiring the Petit Press publishing house, the Motejlek.com website wrote. Neither Penta nor Petit Press has confirmed information about the trade, however.
“We will not comment on any specific publishing houses; we have not confirmed anything to Mr [Miroslav] Motejlek,” Penta spokesperson Martin Danko said, as quoted by the Pravda daily.
Petit Press publishes various titles, including the dailies Sme, Korzár and Új Szó, as well as a variety of regional titles and The Slovak Spectator weekly. It is currently owned by German company Rheinisch–Bergische Verlagsgesellschaft and Prvá slovenská investičná skupina, a subsidiary of Czech investment holding Proxy-Finance. Both hold 50 percent of the share.
Head of Petit Press, Alexej Fulmek, said that in the event that the German shareholder wants to sell its stock, Prvá slovenská investičná skupina will have the pre-emptive right.
“I assume that if Rheinisch-Bergische decides to take this step, about which we do not have any information yet, Prvá slovenská investičná skupina will use this pre-emptive right to buy shares,” Fulmek added, as quoted by SITA.
Penta recently acquired the Trend Holding and Spoločnosť 7 Plus via cooperation with Dutch investment firm V-3 Media Holding, which officially bought both publishing houses. Danko said that the financial group also plans to gradually expand its investment presence in the media in the Czech and Polish markets and actively participate in ongoing ownership consolidation.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
