New publishers are swallowed up by the Fides media empire

The pro-government media group continues to focus. According to the latest information published in the company’s prospectus, three publishers are merged into Mediaworks Hungary Zrt:

• Dunaújváros Superinfo Advertising, Newspaper and Book Publishing Ltd.
• Press Mandiner Kft.
• Napfénymédia és Marketing Kft.

The reason for the action was not mentioned in the official information. In any case, the stipulation is that “the merger of the three publishers will not lead to the expiration of their claims against them and against Mediaworks”.

Draft balance sheets of the merged companies show that two of the three merged publishers have significantly negative equity: Mandiner Press, with capital of 3 million, has capital of 34.8 million, while Szeged has capital of 3 million. -216.3 million for Napfénymedia and Marketing, which publishes hu. As a result, after the merger of the three publishers, Mediaworks’ equity will decrease from HUF 11.8 billion to HUF 11.5 billion, and its profit reserve will decrease by about 300 million to 4.7 billion.

In addition, the merged publishers will bring a significant liability of about half a billion forints to Mediaworks: Mandiner approximately 202.6 million, while Napfénymedia 5 million, most of which is short-term, i.e. due within one year. This brings Mediaworks’ total liabilities to nearly 22.7 billion, two-thirds of which are short-term.

At the end of 2020, Mediaworks owes HUF 13.35 billion to three banks: the largest, approximately 7.4 billion, to MKB, also owned by Lőrinc Mészáros, and about 5.5 billion to MKB and Budapest Bank as of mid-2023. Takarékbank and half a billion to Takarékbank Granite.

This is the second time in nearly two years that Hungarian newspapers and publishers have merged into Mediaworks Hungary Zrt. , which discontinued Népszabadság in October 2016 and became part of Lőrinc Mészáros. Which became the property of the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA) of the interest of Lőrinc Mészáros at the end of April 2019, but can still be considered under the influence of the billionaire businessman. In August 2020, for example, Mészáros attorney Joseph Tamas Curtis became the owner and director of the Media Fundamentum Nonprofit Zrt.

The first mergers, at the end of September 2019, were even larger, absorbing 11 mediaworks publishers.

However, its scope is much wider, as a pro-government media group was formed, of which Mediaworks became the dominant member, of 29 newspaper publishers under the so-called governance agreement signed on February 21, 2019, with the right to control the other. 28 newspapers.

Companies grouped into a group of companies recognized on the basis of a judgment contract do not cooperate independently, but on the basis of a unified commercial policy. They manage a unified system of governance based on standard business processes. They coordinate their financial, accounting, control and IT systems, and make their purchases together. Companies subject to audit may select their employees themselves, but only with the approval of Mediaworks. Its management is also entitled to instruct the CEO of the controlled company or, if necessary, to revoke certain powers.

Of the 28 companies subject to audit, 11 decided on June 24, 2019 to merge with Mediaworks. Now two more have followed, with Mandiner Press and Sunlight Media and Marketing now being members of the famous group of companies since its inception. (Just interesting: the decision to merge the three publishers now was made exactly two years later, on June 24, 2021). At the same time, the third now merged company, Dunaújvárosi Szuperinfó Reklám, Lap-és Könyvkiadó Kft. , is also a subsidiary of Mediaworks, with qualified majority influence from October 2017 to September 2020 Lőrinc Mészáros’ media empire is farms. .

Incidentally, in its 2020 consolidated financial statements, Mediaworks identified only 12 publishers, versus 28 at the time of its launch, as belonging to its recognized group of companies — another sign of focus. Current members:

• Kft. Peninsula Echo.
• EVOMEDIA Szolgáltató Kft.
• Radio Gong Co., Ltd.
• NEWS TV Zrt.
• Reklám contract quit.
• Hong Easter I visited.
• KARC FM Media Ltd.
• Press Mandiner Kft.
• Napfénymédia Kft.
• New Wave Media Group Kft PRINTIMUS Kft.
• Salesworks Kft.

In addition to Dunaújvárosi Szuperinfó Reklám, Lap- és Könyvkiadó Kft. , the company registers four other subsidiaries, MédiaLog-DMHM Zrt. It is based in Veszprém Maraton Laphmä- Multivízió Kiadói Kft.

Mediaworks, owned by KESMA alone, employed an average of 2,738 people in 2020. He owns about 500 media titles, of which he publishes and broadcasts National Sports, Magyar Nemzet, Origo, HírTV, 888.hu and all the dailies in the province.

Although the group’s profitability has improved: compared to a loss of HUF 1.45 billion in 2019, an after-tax profit of nearly HUF 2.9 billion was recorded in 2020, six of its sixteen companies also incurred losses:

• Dunaújváros Superinfo: -6.2 million
• Sunlight modes: -53.5 million
• Echo Penciola CFT: -6.7 million
• Evomedia Kft: -9.9 million
• Karc FM Kft: -98.6 million
• Printimus Kft: -5.2 million

Among the most profitable, New Wave Media generated the largest profit, 1.8 billion, while MédiaLog-DMHM and HírTV 1.1-1.1 billion.

Mediaworks Group closed 2020 with 3% lower sales (HUF 80.3 billion) compared to 2019 (almost 82.9 billion).

However, advertising revenue – thanks to government organizations and companies, as well as subsidiaries of NER – has grown by nearly 2 billion to reach 34 billion. And revenue for their ad agencies is even better, at 2.3 billion, more than 10 billion. But they could not make up for the fact that the group’s second largest source of revenue was nearly 3 billion, or nearly 15 billion, while television and radio broadcasts also received only 2.2 billion in 2020, compared to about 5 billion in the previous year. one billion. Mediaworks Group’s print and film revenue fell by half and a half billion smaller.

From 80.3 billion last year, 2.5 billion came from abroad. By far the largest share came from Slovakia (representing nearly half of sales, 1.2 billion), and Ireland (nearly 666 million), while Luxembourg and Austria also collected 59-59 million, Germany 37 million, and Poland nearly 22 million.