Romanian media mogul sells five of his brands to tabloid owner

Romanian media mogul Adrian Sarbu, the owner of Mediafax group and founder of PRO TV – the biggest TV station in Romania, currently owned by CME, has sold five of his media brands, including Gandul, to local investor Radu Budeanu, the founder of local tabloid Cancan and paparazzi magazine Ciao!, Profit.ro reported.

The transaction also included the Descopera, CSID, Apropo TV and Go4IT brands. The buyer also took over the equipment and employees.

The money from this transaction will go to ING Bank, the main creditor of Mediafax group, which has been in insolvency since 2015.

Gandul is a local newspaper founded in 2005 by the former editorial team of Adevarul newspaper, led by Cristian Tudor Popescu. Adrian Sarbu bought the newspaper in 2006. The newspaper closed its print edition in 2011. Gandul had 1.5 million unique visitors in September while the other four websites had 3.8 million visitors, according to SATI.

Earlier this year, Sarbu also sold the Pro Sport and Pro Motor brands to the same buyer.

Sarbu’s Mediafax group still holds the Mediafax general news site, the Ziarul Financiar financial daily and the Business Magazin weekly financial magazine.

However, Sarbu has also developed other media brands in recent years, including new TV stations he plans to launch.

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