J&T Investment Fund to become the new owner of the daily newspaper from Rijeka.
“Novi List” from Rijeka will soon get a new owner. The J&T Investment Fund will in the next few days sign an agreement to acquire the oldest Croatian daily newspaper after the decision made by Zagrebačka Banka, which is the largest creditor of the publishing house from Rijeka which is currently undergoing a pre-bankruptcy settlement procedure, reports Večernji List on March 30, 2016.
According to sources in Novi List, the decision was made after the Czech-Slovak investment fund sent a better offer than the Telegram Media Group owned by the family of Ninoslav Pavić, who was until recently the majority owner of Europa Press Holding.
Editor-in-chief of Novi List Nenad Hlača on Tuesday informed his journalists about the change in ownership structure, and the news was confirmed by the CEO of the Telegram Media Group Saša Milinović. According to him, this morning he received a notice from the owner of Novi List that Telegram Media Group’s offer had not been accepted. Hlača did not comment on the news, saying that additional information can only be given by the management.
According to sources, it is not yet known whether J&T will directly invest in Novi List or whether it will use its media group called JOJ Media House. The J&T financial group manages assets worth 9.4 billion euros. Its JOJ Media House was founded in 2010 and its portfolio includes several Slovak television channels and marketing companies in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Finding a strategic partner was one of the main tasks of Novi List. The total debt of Novi List to creditors amounts to more than 40 million kuna, and almost half of that amount is owed to Zagrebačka Banka.
