Management buyout at Cofina

 In Companies, Hostile Takeover Bids, Media, News

The CEO of Cofina Media, one of the largest in Portugal, has confirmed that the company, which has newspapers such as Correio da Manhã, Sábado, Record and Jornal de Negócios, will be bought out by the management.

Luís Santana said that the necessary financing had been secured from promoters MBO and financial institutions and trustworthy national investors.
“I and a number of directors at Cofina Media are preparing a management buyout that we will present to the company’s shareholder with whom we have not had any kind of negotiations” he states in a note sent to news desks on Tuesday.
“The team has a deep knowledge of Cofina Media, a winning, credible and independent project. The reason for this buyout is to develop its business model while at the same time ensuring its independence, indeed a journalistic project for us can only be independent.”
Luís Santana explains without going into details that: “The project will secure the necessary finance from the MBO promoters, but also the financial institutions, trustworthy national investors which are comfortable with the independence of the media – the sole guarantee of the credibility and success of Cofina Media”.
And adds: “The team is aware that there will be forces that will try and scupper this operation, which will not come as a surprise taking into account that there are interests in the current companies that want to reduce or get rid of independent media that are courageous in their service to both readers and society.”