PRISA sells up to 35% Media Capital stake

PRISA and Ongoing Strategy Investments have signed a strategic agreement aimed at developing commercial operations and content. The agreement sees Ongoing acquiring 35% of Media Capital, Portugal's leading media company owned by PRISA. The deal is awaiting the Portuguese regulatory and administrative green light.

The deal is of significant strategic value for PRISA and is in line with the company's previously outlined plans to incorporate new partners which would provide capital, technology and new markets for the Group.

The agreement brings together the strengths of both groups - Ongoing is a dynamic company, present in the media sector and with important investments and interests in the audiovisual sector. Prisa, for its part, is the leading media provider of cultural, news, education and entertainment in the Spanish and Portuguese-language markets.

Ongoing Strategy Investments SGPS S.A is an important business group with investments focussed in the areas of Telecom, Media and Technology and Financial Services. The group is committed to the development of a multimedia platform for the creation, production and distribution of content and services for a potential global market  of 250 million customers. The group is also involved in investment projects in the energy and real estate sectors. Ongoing operates in the Portuguese-language markets and its mission is to create a industrial group which will be sustainable over the long term and which, in concert with its strategic partners, will be able to compete on the world stage.

Media Capital is Portugal's largest media group. It owns Portugal's leading free-to-view channel, TVI, as well as TVI24, the 24-hour news channel. In the radio broadcast sector, it is the country's second operator, with channels such as Radio Comercial, Radio Clube Português, Cidade FM, M80, Romántica FM, Best Rock, and the online channel Cotonete. The group also owns the company Media Capital Multimedia,  whose chief asset is Portugal's second-ranked web portal, IOL.

Media Capital also has a presence in the area of audiovisual production through Plural Entertainment, Portugal's leading producer of TV dramas, as well as in record publishing and the organization of musical events (Farol) and in film distribution (Castelo Lopes Multimedia).

PRISA is the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese-language business group in the fields of education, information and entertainment. Present in 22 countries, it reaches more than 50 million users through its global brands El País, 40 Principales, Santillana and Alfaguara. It's presence in Brazil and Portugal and among the growing Hispanic community in the US has given the group an Ibero-American dimension and has opened up a potential global market of 700 million people.