The Russian government will sell control in Channel One, but will receive a verified investor and a “golden share,” The Bell reported on
The state will give up a controlling stake in Channel One, Russia’s biggest broadcaster and the main source of news for the bulk of the population.
Russian President
The stated purpose of the additional issue is the financial recovery of the channel, which has been in deep loss for at least 8 years, and its debts exceed
The share of the
The state will retain the "golden share" of Channel One, which will allow it to control the adoption of important decisions – for example, the sale of large stakes to new shareholders.
Channel One has been unprofitable since 2012. In 2019, it recorded a net loss of
The channel's contractors systematically complain about non-payments, and the Ostankino television centre filed a lawsuit against them in 2018, and in 2019 announced that it was cutting employees because of Channel One's debts, and warned of possible disruptions to television broadcasting.
The financial situation of Channel One last year was analysed in detail by Meduza. Sources of the publication explained the losses by a drop in advertising revenues after 2014, lost to competition on the internet, in which the channel began to invest too late, and the ambitions of
At the same time, in recent years the channel has received less government support than all other government channels.
Now 38.9% of the shares of Channel One belong to the
The largest private shareholder of the channel is
How much the share of the state will decrease depends on the interpretation of the text of Putin's decree. It talks about "the preservation of the RF share in the authorised capital <...of at least 34% of votes at the general meeting of shareholders."
Rosimushchestvo under the “share of the Russian Federation” always means the direct share of the state – that is, in the case of Channel One, 38.9%.
That means there may be an additional issue of 12.8%, and with a proportional decrease in the share of FSUEs, the effective share of the state would fall to 44.6%. If we are talking about reducing both direct and indirect state shares from 51% to 34%, the size of the additional issue will already be 30%.
The existing private shareholders – NMG with 29% and the anonymous owner with 20% – will either have to buy out all or part of the additional issue, or their stake will be diluted proportionally. The composition of non-state shareholders and the size of shares of all shareholders of the joint stock company will be determined by the government within three months, according to Putin's decree.
“Whoever becomes the new investor of Channel One, the main thing on his agenda will be determined in the same place where it was determined – in the Kremlin. But the fact that
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