The Serbian Antimonopoly Commission approved Telekom's acquisition of Kurir.
The company Telekom Srbija has notified the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition of its intention to acquire Mondo INC, the publisher of Kurir, as stated by this Commission to Raskrikavanje, adding that they have approved the concentration. This information is not yet available on the official website of the Commission, and they will publish it, they say, when "procedural conditions" are met. Previously, Telekom also received the "green light" for the acquisition of Mondo, which is currently owned by businessman Igor Žeželj, from the antitrust commissions of North Macedonia and Montenegro.
“The Commission for the Protection of Competition has received a notification of the concentration of market participants Telekom Srbija a.d. and Mondo INC, which it has approved in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Competition,” the Commission responded to a question from a journalist at Raskrikavanje.
This information cannot be found on the official website, and Raskrikavanje reports that the decision on the concentration will be published only once procedural conditions such as data protection are met.
The intention of the state-owned Telekom Srbija to acquire Mondo INC has been known since last year when the antitrust commission of North Macedonia announced it on its website.
The Serbian telecommunications operator was obliged to notify the Macedonian Commission of its intention because it operates in that country through the company “MTEL.” It has similar obligations in other countries in the region where it develops its business, but the Macedonian commission, unlike other commissions, published this on its website. The Macedonian antitrust commission later approved this concentration.
The “green light” for the acquisition, or gaining individual control over Mondo, was received by Telekom in November of last year from the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Competition of Montenegro. Telekom operates in Montenegro through the company “m:tl.”
The General Director of Telekom Srbija, Vladimir Lučić, previously did not want to confirm in a phone conversation with a journalist from Raskrikavanje whether and when Telekom would acquire Mondo. “It’s one thing to receive approvals from regulators, and another to realize it,” he briefly commented in October of last year.
We received a similar response from the company itself at that time.
“If we receive the necessary approvals from the relevant regulators in all countries in the region, we will make a final decision on whether and to what extent we will become owners of our long-term partner.”
It has long been known that Telekom and Igor Žeželj’s companies collaborate.
There are also known millions of investments by the state operator in Mondo, which was confirmed by a contract signed at the end of 2018.
According to the content of that contract, Telekom committed to invest as much as 38 million euros in Žeželj’s parent company Wireless Media (WM), which includes its subsidiary Mondo INC.
Let us remind you, as Raskrikavanje has previously reported, that contract contained a provision stating that after five years from the signing of the contract, Telekom has the right to request Žeželj to sell them the company Mondo.
Just as those five years were expiring, in 2023, changes began in the ownership structure of Žeželj’s media. In October of that year, he merged the previous publisher of Kurir, Adria Media Group (AMG) with Mondo.
Today, Mondo is the publisher of several media outlets, the most well-known being Kurir, which has newspapers, a portal, and television. Mondo publishes multiple portals, including Espreso, Glossy, Mondo, Sensa, Yumama, Stvar ukusa, Smart life, Lepa i srećna, as well as the magazine Elle. Additionally, Mondo owns cable television channels Klasik TV and DOX TV, and has a production house, Firefly Production, which is behind many domestic series and films.
Source: Raskrikavanje
