The Czech company Arraviet has bought the biggest Slovak publishing house, Ikar, together with the rest of the Czech-Slovak group Euromedia which includes also the Czech publishing houses Odeon, Universum, Knižní klub and Yoli, the Sme daily wrote on February 11.
The German publisher Bertelsmann sold it to Arraviet, a purpose-founded company owned by Igor Mrva who is also the head of the Diversified Retail Company, through which 11 managers of the J&T financial group own a 40-percent stake in the network of Slovak bookstores Panta Rhei (the rest is owned by network’s founder, Ladislav Bödök). Through this transaction, Arraviet will also acquire the wholesale distribution of books (e.g. for Tesco or the Neoluxor bookshop network).
“The advisor of the company Arraviet was the J&T IB and Capital Markets company,” Bertelsmann’s spokesman Matthias Wulff. J&T IB and Capital Markets is the daughter of J&T Banka, which is alleged to have financed the deal – the price of which is not known.
(Source: Sme)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
