MTG sold shares of its family of subscription TV channels Viasat both in Russia and abroad.
As reported by RBC, the Swedish company MTG announced the sale of the Russian part of Viasat to the Synergy Company, owned by Anatoly Evgenievich Karjakin, and of the foreign one (except the Nordic countries) to the Sabiero Holdings Limited, incorporated into the stock family Baring Vostok.
According to the Tax Service of Russia, the Synergy was established on October 6 this year, and Mr. Karjakin is its sole owner. In addition, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) states that Anatoly Evgenievich has been the owner of advertising company Gallery for 5 years, the largest shareholder (51%) of with is the investment fund Baring Vostok Capital Partners. It is also known that Mr Karjakin held the position of senior executive in that investment company.
We shall recall that the MTG started selling out its assets in the Russian Federation due to the effectiveness of amendments, which do not allow foreigners and foreign companies to own over 20% of any mass media. As Mediasat reported before, a division of the fund Baring Vostok would redeem the minority stake of Viasat abroad.
The sale of non-terrestrial channels Viasat totalled USD 45,5 million. Anatoly Karjakin did not comment on details of the deal.
Earlier, the American businessman Leonard Blavatnik was eager to buy out a part of non-terrestrial family of TV channels Viasat both in Russia and abroad, and he had even signed a preliminary agreement with the company. But the deal fell through in September.
