Presidential chief of staff Serhiy Lyovochkin and billionaire Dmytro Firtash will co-own the country’s biggest Inter TV channel if the Feb. 1 deal is approved by the nation’s weak anti-trust body.
Firtash, one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs and the dominant chemicals industry player, whose fortune is estimated at $3.2 billion, received control over 71 percent of Inter Group’s nine channels: Inter, Inter+, NTN, K1, Mega, Enter-Film, K2, Pixel and MTV Ukraine. Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy, the nation’s former deputy prime minister and a multimillionaire, was the previous owner.
“The deal will be finalized once permission is obtained from the Antimonopoly Committee,” Group DF said in a Feb. 7 statement. Yaryna Kluchkovska, Firtash’s spokeswoman, said his GDF Media Group Limited will manage the channel.
Lyovochkin told journalists his share will only be 20 percent, but did not provide any further details. “Everything I do in my commercial operations is in accordance with law, and is reflected in my (income) declaration,” he said, promising that Inter will be included in his 2013 income declaration.
Natalia Ligachova, chief editor of Telekritika media watchdog, said that the ownership change will most likely lead to a change in the editorial policy of the channel once again. In recent months, the channel had granted fair amounts of air time to the opposition, according to independent monitoring.
“I think the editorial policy of Inter will be adjusted in favor of the interests of the president, (his) family and the authorities,” Ligachova said. “The only question remains is how smooth this move will be,” she added.
In the last months of Khoroshkovsky’s ownership, Inter significantly improved its editorial content while creating a supervisory council consisting of media nongovernmental organization members. The channel closed its government-friendly political talk show hosted by Russian Yevgeniy Kiselev, and replaced it with a more balanced program hosted by Anna Bezulyk. Now the expert community is starting to doubt that Bezulyk will be able to stay on after the change of ownership.
Group DF will manage Lyovochkin’s share of the channel, which will allow him to bypass the legal ban on business activity for government employees. Khoroshkovsky also managed to combine his numerous government posts together with ownership of Inter, claiming the channel was managed by his wife.
Lyovochkin said his ownership would not affect the editorial policy of Inter and vowed to sign an editorial agreement with the channel. “As a person who is part of the government I guarantee my keeping out from the creative activity of the journalists and the media managers,” he was quoted by the presidential website as saying.
Firtash said he and Lyovochkin have had their eyes on Inter for a long time.
“We started discussing with Sergiy Lyovochkin the idea of purchasing Inter back in 2006, which is when we first discussed the deal with the channel’s owner,” Firtash said in his official statement. “Negotiations were held in different stages over this this period of time and I’m glad we’ve reached an agreement about finalizing the deal.”
Inter Group’s value was estimated at $2.5 billion, according to Inter’s press service. But industry players say the real value is close to $700-800 million.
Television channels in Ukraine are a loss-making business, including Inter.
The ownership structure of the group has been kept secret for years. But last year Khoroshkovsky pulled back the curtain a bit, showing that it led to several offshore firms in Cyprus.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]
