New Bulgarian Media Group Signs Deal to Sell Newspaper Business to Irish Co
New Bulgarian Media Group Holding (NBMG) signed a framework agreement to sell to Irish-registered Мedia Maker Limited its holdings in print media publishers Telegraf, Monitor, Politika Dnes and Kompakt Meridian as well as 50% of the Borba publishing house, state-run news agency BTA reported.
The deal covers newspapers Telegraf and Monitor, the Politika Dnes weekly, sports weekly Meridian Match, and regional newspaper Borba, BTA reported, quoting an NBMG statement.
Under the framework agreement, the deal will be finalised after it is cleared by the country's competition regulator, the statement was quoted as saying.
Media Maker Limited was set up by Patrick Halpenny, former CEO of CommuniCorp. Group Limited, who has extensive investment and management experience in print and electronic media and in advertising in a number of European countries, it added.
According to data of Ireland's Companies Registration Office, Media Maker was registered on April 9.
The completion of the deal would mark the exit of NBMG and its owner, Irena Krasteva, from Bulgaria's media market, where the media group has been active for seven years, the statement said.
NBMG, alongside other media affiliated with Krasteva and her son, Delyan Peevski, an MP from the ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms, are often cited as having a stronghold on Bulgaria's media market.