The Prisa Council confirms Oughourlian's continuity as president
Madrid
Updated:
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The Hurry Council confirmed today to Joseph Oughourlian as Non-Executive Chairman of the Group, as ABC has advanced. The Armenian investor, owner of the Amber Capital fund -representative of the first shareholder of the company with 29.84% of the capital-, will leave the interim position that he had left the departure of his predecessor, Javier Monzón, at the end of last year. Then, with the removal of Monzón, Oughourlian assumed the provisional presidency in his capacity as executive vice president of the Board of Directors. Sources consulted by this newspaper explained that the investor will continue to be president of the group until the planned changes are made with the rest of the shareholders.
In addition, the Council of the Spanish media group, which also addressed the approval of the 2020 accounts of the company, appointed Rosauro Varo vice president of the group. On the agenda they also planned to give entry into the meeting on Tuesday to a director of the French company Vivendi, to comply with one of the agreements of the French company with Amber Capital after its entry into the capital of Prisa with 10% of the shares. However, at the last minute it was ruled out so as not to make so many changes at once, although it could be included on the agenda of the next council.
The French group broke into the shareholding of Prisa last January 22 with the purchase of a 7.6% stake in the company's capital. The acquisition came after HSBC Continental Europe put on sale a day before a package of 7.89% from the Spanish media group for 52 million euros, which meant the financial institution's exit from Prisa's capital. Three days later, after being advanced by this newspaper, Vivendi increased its participation to 9.9% of the capital
Livendi has repeatedly explained that the operation is part of its strategy to lead the global content, media and communications market, and expand its access to Spanish-speaking markets in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. In fact, it is already present in these markets through Universal Music Group, Havas and Gameloft.
In addition, the group - also present in Mediaset - owns the Spanish television production company Bambu Producciones and one of its largest video game production studios is based in Barcelona. It also manages ticketing services in Spain and its intellectual property and licensing business is also present in the Hispanic markets.
Will not leave until completing objectives
The sources assured that the current president will not leave the presidency until reaching the objectives agreed with the main shareholders of the company. In any case, Oughourlian's priority is advance in the Santillana split, that is, its separation from the media, for an eventual IPO. With the spin-off of the book publisher, the aim is to put the company in value and isolate the risks generated by the turbulent media market.
This priority is joined by continuing to explore the sale of non-strategic assets such as the sale of its 20% stake in Le Monde or the sale of more radios in Latin America that are no longer profitable.
Similarly, it is strengthen strategic assets such as radios in Spain or company newspapers such as El País, Cinco Días or AS. In a context of paper crisis, reinforce digitization and new forms of monetization that reinforce the commitment to charge for digital content.
