Nova Group buys stake from Waz in Romania Libera's publisher, becomes sole owner

The Nova Group, a company owned by Romanian businessman Dan Adamescu, has bought the 50 percent share package in Medien Holding, the publisher of Romania Libera newspaper, from German Waz, the company has announced. The Nova Group thus became the sole owner of the media group. “We believe in Romanian media's future and it is the right moment for such an investment,” said Alexander Adamescu, Nova Group representative. No value for the deal was put forward. Medien Holding has several media products in its portfolio: the daily Romania Libera, www.romanialibera.ro, the Hiparion magazines - Caminul, Casa Mea, Domus, Planul casei mele, Unelte si echipamente- the United print printing house, and the branding agency Corporate Media Publishing. The news comes after the president of the German media group Waz, Bodo Hombach, who has recently said the company would exit from several markets in the Balkans area, Romania included, declared he was disappointed by the region. Hombach said the Romanian media market is distorted and that media publishers have major difficulties in sustaining a serious media company. He mentions the oligarchs buying newspapers and magazines not as a way to make money, but rather to obtain political influence, which affects the market. The Waz manager has underlined the artificial media market readership increase, through mechanisms such as prizes, raffles and other games, which distort the market. Dan Adamescu and other members of his family are also the owners of the Unirea Shopping Center in Bucharest and of a similar shopping center in Brasov. The family also owns the majority of shares in retailer Flamingo.