Serbia’s Commission for Protection of Competition has started an investigation into the sale of the radio and television broadcaster B92, which was purchased by Astonko Holdings Ltd. through its subsidiary in Belgrade that bears the same name, the commission posted on its webiste.
The commission says capital increases were conducted within B92 from 2006 to 2009 by issuing new shares, with the most significant occurring in October 2010, resulting in Astonko taking 85 percent of B92.
The change in ownership was not reported top the commission or investigated, which is a legal obligation, the commission stated in its decision to start the investigation.
Head of the B92 Board of Directors Veran Matic had no comment on the commission’s decision.
“I have no comment. The commission should do its job,” he told Tanjug.
The commission says it is aware of the problem with insufficient transparency when it comes to the ownership structure in the Serbian media and that the problem manifests itself through registration of companies abroad only so they would appear later as founders of Serbian companies that become the owners of media in the countries, all in an effort to hide the real owners.
Such media purchases without an approval from the commission can result in the creation or strengthening of a dominant position, which could limit competition in the media market severely.
If the investigation shows that such concentration of ownership happened without the commision’s approval, which is required by law, the commission can order the parties involved to split the company, sell shares, cancel the contract or take other steps in order to revert the situation to that before the concentration, the statement says.
Source SerbGov
