The Opus group indirectly acquired a 17% stake in the IKO group, the biggest supplier of content to commercial television broadcaster TV2, and a 17% stake in Atmedia, an ad agency contracted with TV2 as well as with MTVA, the content provider for Hungarian public media, among other business partners, Opusʼs PR agent said in a separate statement.
The stakes were acquired with the consent of shareholders with pre-emptive rights. The acquisitions were made by Status Capital Venture Capital Fund Management, in which Opus holds a 25% stake. Lőrinc Mészáros, the business oligarch and close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, owns 75% of the fund manager.
Online portal index.hu notes that Atmedia is owned by András Tombor, a former chief adviser to Orbán, and that the firm has sold significant advertising time of public media MTVA, TV2 and several commercial television stations.
Last year Atmediaʼs revenues reached HUF 27.8 billion, almost HUF 19 bln up on the previous year, with after-tax profit of HUF 1.1 bln. Several government-owned companies and institutions bought advertising space through Atmedia, index.hu notes.
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