Ringier deal for Jean Frey falls through
A planned deal for Switzerland's leading publishing house, Ringier, to take over some of the country's leading titles, has fallen through.
The Basler Media Group, owner of the Jean Frey publishing house that produces the weekly “Weltwoche”, the “Bilanz” monthly business magazine and the bi-monthly “Beobachter”, said the titles would now be bought by a group of Swiss institutional and private investors.
In a new agreement announced on Friday, the Basler Media Group, which publishes the daily “Basler Zeitung” is to sell the Jean Frey company and its subsidiaries to the swissfirst group, based in Zug.
Swissfirst, which is to become an independent company, named the former editor-in-chief of German-language Swiss television, Filippo Leutenegger, as the new CEO of the Jean Frey company.
Delayed profit
Swissfirst’s CEO Thomas Matter said that the Swiss investors acquiring the publishing house were aware that their investment would probably not make a profit for three to five years at the earliest.
However, he added that they believed this was the best moment for them to buy it.
When the planned deal with Ringier was announced in December, it was believed that the Basler Media Group had lost SFr100 million ($59.28 million) since it became a major shareholder of the Jean Frey company in 1993.
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