CTC Media Announces Closing of DTV Acquisition
17 Apr 2008
Moscow – April 17, 2008 – CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster, announced today that it completed the acquisition of the DTV Group from Modern Times Group MTG AB (“MTG”) on April 16, 2008.
Alexander Rodnyansky, Chief Executive Officer of CTC Media, said, “We are excited with the opportunity to immediately start integrating DTV into CTC Media. We hope that this will allow us to re-launch the renewed DTV channel by the start of the fall TV season”.
In accordance with the terms of the acquisition agreement, as amended, CTC Media will pay $190 million (approximately half of the total deal consideration) from its current cash balances. The balance is expected to be paid from the proceeds of commercial debt financing by the end of the second quarter 2008. The total cash consideration for the DTV group is $395 million, subject to certain balance sheet adjustments.
About DTV Group
Based in Moscow, DTV was acquired in 2001 by Modern Times Group MTG AB, a publicly quoted international entertainment broadcasting group. As of February 2008, DTV’s signal reached 60% of TNS Gallup measured households nationwide. The channel is distributed through 28 owned-and-operated local TV stations in larger Russian cities and a number of affiliates. DTV’s average overall 4+ audience share in 2007 was 1.9%. DTV generated approximately $40 million of net sales in 2007 and an operating profit of approximately $4 million.
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