Altice eyes Portugal’s Media Capital
November 14, 2016
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Spanish media group Prisa is planning to sell its Portuguese unit Media Capital, which owns national broadcaster TVI, production company Plural and Radio Comercial.
According to a report in Portuguese weekly Expresso, the intention to divest Media Capital is part of the financial restructuring process of the Spanish group. In this sense, Prisa has already mandated at least two international investment banks to seek a buyer for Media Capital.
One of the potential buyers could be Altice, which owns PT Portugal, although there are allegedly other interested companies.
Altice is known to be interested in purchasing content worldwide and expanding its presence in the media sector, including in Portugal.
This is not the first time that Prisa has put up Media Capital for sale – previously the asking price of €350 million alienated potentially interested parties.
Media Capital ended the third quarter of 2016 with revenues of €39 million (+1 per cent year-on-year) and a net profit of €1.4 million. For the 9M 2016, revenues reached €124.3 million (+3 per cent) with net profit of €8.7 million (+7 per cent).
TVI is the TV audience leader in Portugal with an overall share of 21.7 per cent. The group also operates three thematic channels (TVI24, TVI Ficção and TVI Reality), distributed on pay-TV platforms.