Naguib Sawiris captures Lion’s Share in Euronews Channel

Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris is acquiring 53% of the shares in international news channel Euronews by investing €35 million.

According to Le Figaro, the channel as reached agreement with Sawaris to augment the channel’s capital with €35 million giving him a 53% majority share in the channel.

The fresh money will allow Euronews to invest in its development.”For the past five years, we invested relatively little in digital. Our choice was simple: either we grow or we cut the wings,” told CEO Michael Peters Les Echos.

Joining the channel in late 2011, Peters implemented a new strategic plan for the channel. “This new plan required a fresh injection of cash, which was accepted by the shareholders. They could not keep up financially but they believe in the development of the channel and therefore agreed to have their ownership diluted.”

Euronews broadcasts in 13 different languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian. The channel employs around 400 journalists and reaches 400 million households in 155 countries worldwide.

There are currently 24 shareholders, including a number of public broadcasters from across Europe: CT (Czech Republic), CyBC (Cyprus), ENTV(Algeria), ERT (Greece), ERTT (Tunisia), ERTU(Egypt), francetélévisions (France), NTU (Ukraine), PBS (Malta), RAI (Italy), RTBF (Belgium), RTE(Ireland), RTP (Portugal), RTR (Russia), RTVSLO(Slovenia), SNRT (Morocco), SSR (Switzerland), TRT (Turkey), TVR (Romania), TV4 (Sweden), YLE (Finland), Grand Lyon, Département du Rhône, Région Rhône-Alpes.

Source: Broadband TV News