Owning media outlets protects us against attacks, says Penta co-owner

Media represent a special investment for the Penta financial group, as they can be used as a "shield" against attacks, Penta co-owner Marek Dospiva told the Hospodárske Noviny daily in an interview on Tuesday. "I won't beat about the bush. The fact that we own media gives us certainty that it'll be much harder for anyone to attack us irrationally and I underline irrationally here", said Dospiva. However, the goal of Penta is also to improve the environment in which its owners live and pursue commercial cooperation between media and other firms in the group's portfolio. "The better and more transparent the landscape here is, the better our companies will fare. We can use synergies between retail firms and media, whether it be in advertisement or in raising certain awareness [of an issue]", he claimed. Dospiva didn't want to comment on the potential acquisition of Czech publishing house Vltava-Labe-PRESS. "If everything goes as it should, there'll be a public announcement within two months", he said. Even though important, media don't belong among the most significant investments for Penta, the so-called platforms, Dospiva added, because they fail to meet the basic financial criterion the group uses as a measuring stick - the gross operational profit (EBITDA) of at least €50 million. Dospiva lists among such platforms health care, the three essential pillars of which for Penta are the hospital chain World of Health, network of pharmacies Dr. Max and health insurer Dôvera; then entertainment, including the Fortuna lottery company; and the banking sector - Prima Banka and Privatbanka. As Penta announced on Monday (April 20), when evaluating the economic results of 2014, the largest segment in its portfolio is health care (40 percent), followed by developer activities (22 percent), manufacturing (14 percent) and financial services (12 percent). The group has also entered the media market and acquired in the autumn 2014 the publishing companies 7 PLUS, Centrum Holdings, TREND Holdings and Petit Press (led by SME newspaper). The overall value of the portfolio owned by Penta Investments stood at €6.7 billion in the past year, with the group recording a net profit of €70 million.