Portuguese/Spanish TV deals off and on

Michael Hedges August 11, 2009 (follow on Twitter)

Media mergers and acquisitions may rise in the second half of the year. Financial investors are prowling as big companies try to get out from under debt. Always illusive synergies are still hard to grasp.

Portuguese investment fund Ongoing emerges as the next bidder for television broadcaster TVI, so its CEO said. Negotiations between TVI owner Media Capital and Portugal Telecom (PT) ended in June when the Portuguese government, holder of a ‘golden share’ in PT, scuttled the deal. Spanish media company Prisa primarily owns Media Capital. (See Portugal Major Media here)

Prisa was ready to sell 30% of Media Capital to PT for €150 million, reported Capital Madrid (August 11), when Portuguese Prime Minister José Socrates threatened to vote “to prevent the alliance with Prisa.” The report says politicians consider TVI, the most watched television channel in Portugal, “hostile to Socrates.” TVI General Director José Eduardo Moniz resigned (August 5) in the midst of it all.

PT’s strategy in acquiring Media Capital and TVI was – or is – developing content for its triple-play service Meo.

Ongoing holds a 23.5% stake in Impresa, owner of weekly newspaper Expresso and number two television channel SIC. PT owns a stake in Impresa just under 7% leading some to suggest Ongoing is a stalking horse for PT. Ongoing principal Nuno Vasconcelos said he’s ready to buy all or a majority of Media Capital or, if Prisa holds to selling only a minority stake, at least “active participation” in managing the company. His stated plan is expansion into Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa. He also suggested he’d divest the newspaper holdings to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.

Whether or not Ongoing wins Media Capital or increases its stake in Impresa it made the rather dramatic move (August 10) of hiring José Eduardo Moniz as a vice president. “Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa provide a vast market and opportunities for all media,” he said to a press conference. His mandate “is not confined to the Portuguese borders and boundaries.”

Prisa - owner of El Mundo, pay TV operator Sogecable and TV channel Cuatro - began merger talks in June with Imagina, owner of TV channel La Sexta. Negotiations broke down (August 7), as they might, over valuations. That plan was to merge television operations, complicated by sports rights and digital TV issues.  Imagina is owned by Spanish media group MediaPro.