The Portuguese competition authority has allowed media group Covina to buy rival Media Capital from Brisa, Spain’s leading press group, it was announced Monday evening.
Read alsoAltice relinquishes its acquisition of Media Capital Group in Portugal
In 2018, the same regulator prevented Brisa from selling Media Capital to French-Israeli magnate Patrick Drahi’s Altice Group, which owns Portuguese telecommunications company MEO.
Last September, Brisa announced its decision to sell its 94.69% stake in Media Capital Group to Cofina, valued through this transaction at €255 million.
And the owner of El Pais newspaper announced, at the end of October, that this operation resulted in a loss of 76.4 million euros for Briza in the third quarter accounts.
Cofina already has several press titles in Portugal, including the popular daily Correio da Manhã and its CM TV channel.
Read alsoPortuguese media: Covina is negotiating the acquisition of Media Capital
Media Capital in particular owns TVI, which lost the leading position it held for 14 years last February, and the country’s leading radio station.
In 2018, the group achieved a turnover of 181 million euros, which is slightly higher than the second figure in the Empresa segment (172 million euros) but double the sales of Covina (89 million euros).
