DPG Media and Rossel jointly bid for RTL Belgium
DPG Media and Rossel jointly bid for RTL Belgium
Belgian media giants DPG Media and Rossel have joined forces in an advanced move to acquire RTL Belgium, sources confirmed to De Tijd. The deal is reportedly in its final stages. At the same time, DPG Media is also actively pursuing the acquisition of RTL Nederland.
Parties that made it through the initial selection phase of the RTL Belgium sale process were required to submit binding bids to RTL Group late last week. One of the bids came from the DPG Media/Rossel consortium. DPG Media is the owner of brands including VTM, HLN, and Qmusic, while Rossel publishes Le Soir and several French regional newspapers. Their joint offer is said to be in the €200 million to €250 million range.
This is not the first collaboration between DPG Media and Rossel. The two groups were previously co-owners of Mediafin, publisher of De Tijd and L’Echo, until DPG Media sold its 50% stake to Roularta in 2017 when it took full ownership of Medialaan.
Rossel is already familiar with RTL Belgium. Until late last year, it was one of the minority shareholders in the French-speaking radio and TV group, before RTL Group bought out the stakes held by several newspaper publishers.
RTL Belgium CEO Philippe Delusinne declined to comment on the pending transaction.
Parallel efforts in the Netherlands
In parallel, DPG Media is also working on the acquisition of RTL Nederland. Binding offers for RTL Nederland were also due late last week. Among the interested parties are DPG Media and telecom operator Ziggo/Vodafone.
DPG Media already owns 56 media brands in the Netherlands, reaching 92% of the Dutch population. However, the group still lacks one key media pillar in the Dutch market: television broadcasting.
The sales of RTL Belgium and RTL Nederland are part of a broader reshuffle of RTL Group’s portfolio. Earlier, RTL sold its French channel M6 to TF1, aiming to create a French TV giant that would command over 30% of the viewing audience and three-quarters of the television advertising market.
Source: De Tijd, Michaël Sephiha, 22/06/2021, This is an automatically generated translation of the original article, Link to original article.