The owner of the company "Alpac Capital", Pedro Vargas Santos David, was today officially registered as the director of all independent media members of the "United Group" in Serbia.
Portal Nova rs. trans. As can be seen in the Serbian Business Registers Agency, the decisions on the appointment of the owner of Alpak Capital were adopted today.
According to the media outlet, the director of the portal and newspaper "Nova", as well as the weekly "Radar", Mihailo Jovićević, was dismissed, followed by the director of the company "Dan graf", which is the publisher of the newspaper "Danas", Aleksandra Mitić, as well as Brent Sadler from the position of director of Adria News, or N1. Sadler was also dismissed from the position of director of "Adrija News Nova S", to which he had recently been appointed. Janez Živko, who was also the director of the Nova S television, was dismissed in the same package.
The application for the position of director was submitted by Pedro Vargas Santos David himself.
The Nova.rs portal states that in the first half of August, "United Media Digital", which includes the Nova.rs portal, "Radar" and the "Nova" newspaper, then "Adria News", "Adria News Nova S", "Dan Graf", was transferred to the Luxembourg-based company United Fiber Sarl. For now, there is no additional information about the sale and United Fiber Sarl is still listed as the owner in APR, the portal writes.
"United Group" announced at the end of May that it had reached an agreement to sell media from the "Adria News Network" (ANN) network to the company "Alpak Capital". The formation of which was announced at the end of February and which includes 12 media outlets from the region, "United Group" also included "Vijesti" in this network, although it had no authority to do so, nor has the network had any authority over "Vijesti" so far.
Minority shareholders of "Vijesti" have disputed the possibility of the current owner selling its 51 percent of shares in the announced manner, recalling that any possible change of control must be carried out in accordance with Montenegrin laws, company acts and the rights of minority shareholders, while at the same time accusing the actors of this agreed transaction of being motivated by the political interests of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
The Director of the Agency for the Protection of Competition, Nebojša Jovović, said at the end of June, in an interview with "Vijesti", that they had received a request for approval to implement a concentration from the company "Alpak Kapital" through a related market participant, which relates to the purchase of certain media companies in Montenegro, including the companies "Daily Press" and Television Vijesti.
He then said that any attempt to purchase any company in Montenegro, including the Daily Press and TV Vijesti, without prior approval from the Agency would constitute a serious violation of the law and would entail liability for the participants in the proceedings.
N1: We continue to work to the same professional standards
Editorial office N1 answered saying that the ANN takeover process is continuing in accordance with previously announced plans, and that the change in ownership will not affect TV N1's editorial policy, nor the way in which that editorial team makes editorial decisions.
They said that the N1 editorial team continues to work according to the same professional principles and standards as before, and that the editorial team retains full responsibility for the selection of topics, the manner of reporting, and editorial decisions in the public interest.
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