Buying a share in the publishing house of one of the leading Slovak dailies, the daily Sme, had been a topic some two weeks ago when the deal was laid on the table.
Now a deal has been closed. The private equity group Penta and the private newswire SITA will hold a minority stake in the publishing house Petit Press. They decided to sell 5 percent of their shares to the company Prva Slovenska Investicna Skupina controlled by Peter Vajda, who owns 50 percent of the publisher of the SME daily. At the same time, they will keep managerial control at the publisher. As all major Slovak dailies reports, part of the new agreement is the right of the company Namav to buy back the 5 percent after three years, i.e. in 2017, even if the Prva Slovenska Investicna Skupina does not agree.
