Prague, April 19 (CTK) – Czech Media Invest (CMI), a company co-owned and led by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, has submitted a bid for a 91 percent stake in French weekly Marianne, Daniel Castvaj, a CMI board member, told CTK today, thus confirming the information of the French side.
The deal may be signed within a few weeks, he said.
It has nothing to do with Wednesday’s announcement that CMI has been in talks with Lagardere Group on purchasing French magazines including Elle.
As to the Marianne acquisition, CMI is holding talks with Yves de Chaisemartin, CEO of the magazine and majority shareholder who may retain his position following the two parties’ agreement.
Marianne’s circulation reached over 143,000 copies on average last year, according to available data, and the average monthly number of visits of its website and digital versions reached 6 million.
The French weekly has nothing in common with the monthly with the same name published in the Czech Republic by Burda Praha, a member of German group Hubert Burda Media.
Marianne’s website is to be part of the transaction.
The deal with Lagardere Group also concerns magazines Version Femina, Art & Decoration, Tele 7 Jours, France Dimanche, Ici Paris and Public.
On Tuesday, CMI said it was buying Lagardere’s radio stations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania for EUR73m (some Kc1.8bn). The purchase includes Czech radio stations Frekvence 1 and Evropa 2.
CMI, via its subsidiaries Czech News Center (CNC) and CN Invest, has been active mainly on the press market, publishing dailies including Blesk, Sport a Aha!, and tens of magazines. It is a leader in book publishing and newspaper distribution.