About CEETV    |    Contact Us        
Calinos_CEETV_Newspage_LAX2024_160x220_apr29

KDI_160x200-Sep

Madd-160x280_ march30-7title

Raya_160X100_LIMIT_website

2024 MIPCOM_TVBIZZ_160x100px

All3Media_web_160x280_DEAD_AND_BURIED_GIF

Ceetv_160x280_ValleyOfHearts_LoveBerry_Oct7

ATV_160x280_May

 CEE
Bloomberg: CTC Media tumbles after hiring UBS to comply with new law
 03 Dec 2014
CTC Media Inc. (CTCM) dropped the most in two months after it said that Switzerland’s largest bank and one of the Big Four auditors will help it comply with Russia’s newly-voted law limiting foreign ownership in media companies, Bloomberg reports.

The stock slid 6.5 percent to $5.34 in New York on Monday, the biggest decline since Oct. 3. CTC was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2006 and is the only publicly traded Russian television company.

CTC said it hired Zurich-based UBS AG as its financial adviser and KPMG NV as its tax adviser to help it comply with a law requiring Russian media reduce foreign ownership to 20 percent from 50 percent by the end of 2016. CTC, co-owned by Putin’s billionaire ally Yury Kovalchuk, is about three-quarters held by international investors, including Sweden’s Modern Times Group AB.

“CTC Media is trying very hard to find a solution, which is positive for the market, but the market realizes there will be no obvious solution for the broadcaster,” Konstantin Chernyshev, the head of research at UralSib Capital in Moscow, said by phone yesterday. “The new law puts the company in a trap, it will be really hard to comply with this law and please all the shareholders.”

Russia, facing U.S. and European penalties over its alleged role in the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, has cited an “information war” as a reason to curb foreign media ownership. President Vladimir Putin, which denies military involvement in Ukraine, signed the law in October.

Moscow-based CTC, which runs four entertainment television channels in Russia, is working with law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP and accounting firm Habif Arogeti & Wynne LLC to evaluate what actions to take, the company said previously.

Chief Executive officer Yuliana Slashcheva declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News through the company’s press service. Spokesmen for UBS and KPMG were not immediately able to comment on the firms’ partnership with CTC.
RELATED
 SEARCH
 
 TVBIZZ LIVE

 
   FOCUS
 GET OUR NEWSLETTER
 
About  |  Contact  |  Request  |  Privacy Policy  |  Terms and Conditions