President of the Ukrainian Media Holding (UMH) Boris Lozhkin has denied pressure was put on him during the talks on the holding's sale deal.
“This is a business deal – all of the shareholders of UMH favored it, and no pressure was put on me during the talks,” he said.
He added that the deal is to be closed in March 2014, and until then
all of the company’s management will remain the same. According to
Lozhkin, until the closure of the deal, the representative of new owner
will be present at the company to acclimatize themselves.
The UMH president refused to name the value of the deal, saying only
that it satisfies both sides. He also noted that some of the funds were
borrowed, and as of today the new owner had transferred about 50% of the
total sum.
The top manager also said that before the negotiations with VETEK,
the media holding started talks on sale with a big Russian group.
However, VETEK offered more beneficial conditions and a shorter period
to conclude the deal.
According to Lozhkin, the new owner has declared that in next three
years it plans to invest $100 million in the present projects of the
holding, as well as in the purchase of new ones. Moreover, the purchaser
stated that he would sign editorial agreements on retaining journalist
standards, the UMH head added.
As reported, the VETEK group of companies and the United Media
Holding (UMH) Group on Friday signed an agreement on the sale of a 98%
stake in the media holding.
President of Ukrainian Media Holding (UMH Group) Boris Lozhkin will
fulfill his duties until the company’s sale is completes in March 2014,
and afterwards he plans to create a new business.
“Until March 2014, I will serve at my post and fulfill my duties, and
then afterwards I’ll start to establish a new business, probably in the
e-commerce sector,” he said during the Web conference on Forbes.ua on
Friday.
Talking about his plans after leaving holding, Lozhkin said that
since the agreements with UMH’s new owner do not permit him to create a
business that could be a competitor to UMH, he could create a business
in another sphere.
UMH president added that in any case this would be a Russian language project, which likely to spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Lozhkin has been president of UMH since 2000.
In 2013, Focus magazine estimated the fortune of Lozhkin as $126.4 million.
