MTG Completes Nova Bulgaria Acquisition

STOCKHOLM, October 16:
Modern Times Group has wrapped up its acquisition of Bulgarian broadcast group
Nova Televizia after receiving clearance from local regulatory authorities.

MTG will now assume full
operational control of the business, and will consolidate the results in its
accounts within Viasat Broadcasting, effective immediately.

MTG announced its deal to
acquire Nova Televizia in July for 620 million euros from Antenna Bulgaria. The
group owns the TV channel Nova and 80 percent of the women’s magazine Eva. Its revenues last year gained 54 percent to 42
million euros, and it achieved a 32.4-percent share of the local ad market. In
the first half of this year, revenues gained 21 percent to 24.1 million euros.
The network targets urban, young, primarily female audiences, with an
18.2-percent share of the 18-to-49 set in the first half.

The acquisition adds to
MTG’s Bulgarian presence, which already includes the Diema channels through a
50-percent stake in Balkan Media Group.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, the
president and CEO of MTG, commented: “Bulgaria is one of Europe’s
fastest-growing advertising markets, and we have now established a clear scale
position as the number two broadcaster in the market by uniting our existing
Diema channels with Nova. This will enable us to realize significant
operational synergies and focus on taking increased viewing and market shares.
The Nova and Diema channels have well differentiated programming and audience
profiles, which provide the basis for the development of the media house
strategy that we have successfully deployed in our other markets. We look
forward to further accelerating the development of the unified business and
capitalizing on its potential.”

Albrecht continued: “The
acquisition is our largest to date and demonstrates our commitment to expand
our operations into high-growth emerging markets, and to extend our successful
multi-channel multi-country business model. We have further strengthened our
balance sheet through the securing of additional debt financing to fully
finance the acquisition, and still retain significant financial flexibility
moving forward.”

—By Mansha Daswani