Businessman Dan Adamescu, owner of Unirea Shopping Center commercial complex of Bucharest and of Astra insurance company, took over a stake in "R" company, which publishes Romania libera daily.
WAZ, the second largest press group in Germany, had 70% in "R" company.
In the wake of a rather complex transaction, Dan Adamescu and WAZ now hold equal stakes in a company that in its turn is the owner of 92% of "R" company. The rest of stock belongs to employees.
The difference up to 92% of stock was bought by the new company created by WAZ and Adamescu from Petre Mihai Bacanu, the general manager of the newspaper, and from other smaller shareholders.
"I have bought this stake because I am interested in the media sector, which is rising. As a matter of fact, I have been involved in Romania libera's shareholding structure before," said Dan Adamescu, who became chairman of the "R" company Board. He did not unveil the value of the transaction.
Petre Mihai Bacanu will no longer be involved in the current activities of the newspaper and will only retain an honorific function, of founding manager. "We want to hire a mass-media personality for the position of manager. We want to retain the previous lines of the newspaper, but also to apply some improvements over the following months," Adamescu also said.
Two months ago, there was a conflict between some of the journalists from Romania libera and the WAZ employers. Petre Mihai Bacanu maintained, on the journalists' behalf, that the representatives of shareholders supposedly planned to try and change the policy of the newspaper.
sorin.pislaru@zf.ro
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