Chairman of the board of KIT Finance investment bank Alexander Vinokurov
Photo: Yury Martyanov
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Russian Television-O2TV Looking for Investors
The Russian Television channel is looking for a buyer of a blocking package in its O2TV channel. Channel president Vasily Lavrov said that his company is seeking financing for the expansion of its network of affiliates, with the creation of new studios throughout Russia. Alexander Grigoryev, director of the corporate finance at Aton, which is negotiating on O2TV's behalf, said that talks were under way with both investors from broadcasting and purely financial investors. KIT Finance was mentioned by one player on the financial market. KIT Finance would not confirm or deny that information.
O2TV was founded in 2004. It is broadcast over cable networks in 315 Russian cities and has an audience of 30 million. The company expects proceeds of $10 million this year, and its profitability based on EBITDA is estimated at 40-50 percent. It is owned by a group of individuals. Lavrov is the main shareholder.
Grigoryev declined to name the price of the blocking share in the channel, referring only to recent deals on the television station market in Russia. Those deals are the purchase of the MTV holding by Profi Media and of Muz-TV by entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov. Based on them, O2TV can be assessed at roughly $80-100 million, using the same multipliers as for over-the-air channels.
Analysts object that the application of identical multipliers for a cable station is incorrect, but note that the recent sales of the music channels were at very high prices, which will drive up the price of O2TV. Kommersant did not succeed in finding any television operators who expressed interest in O2TV.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 10, 2007
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