Hot Topic - Mecom
Multi-national publisher Mecom Group has become the most recent poster child for debt rattled publicly traded media companies. Once – and not long ago – the darling of rapturous financial projections it now can’t meet debt covenants exceeding €600 million, a figure that has increased more than ten-fold since the rapture. Media companies are becoming sub-prime, er, toxic.
Norway’s Schibsted reported ”Strong advertising revenues and improved circulation figures for the print versions of VG, and Aftenposten.” Mecom, another media company also headquartered in Norway, has been busy the last year spending close to €2 billion ($2.7 billion) buying up some 100 European regional newspapers. And Mathias Döpfner, chairman and ceo of Axel Springer, told Variety, “At the moment we are not only generating the highest profits with our newspapers in the history of our company, but also we are making money a lot faster with our newly launched newspapers.”
Like a bolt out of nowhere, David Montgomery’s Mecom Group has within less than a year established itself as a major European newspaper player. It’s newest target in what really looks like a reverse takeover, is buying Norway’s Orkla media empire for some €900 million in a deal set to close this month, assuming the politicians don’t get involved, and that could still happen since the Norwegian Culture Minister says he is not happy.
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