Ivan Savvidis sells shares in Mega Channel to Russian concerns

The Greek Russian businessman, who is also owner of Thessaloniki PAOK football club, does not intend to take part in developments in Mega Channel, which is at this time at a very critical point.

As a Russian businessman, who is now in possession of the shares bought by Ivan Savvidis from Fotis Bobolas, informed Mega, Mr. Savvidis is not going to pay wages to the channel's employees nor participate in the share capital increase.

The channel was informed through a letter from Russian businessman Kavadev, head of ELNOBO, to whom Savidis sold his Mega shares.

The latest development, however, which came as a bombshell at the station, is in stark contrast to Mr Savvidis' recent statements that he intends to spend 25 million euros and that he wants to pay unpaid workers. The plans of the expat entrepreneur for channel "E" remain unknown.

At the same time, negotiations on the future of Mega are at a critical point and by the end of the month things will have to clear up. The main shareholders of Mega, the Vardinoyannis family and Vangelis Marinakis, made a new proposal to the creditor banks for debt settlement and share capital increase, a proposal that market players believe is very likely to be accepted by banks. However, the same sources comment, there are suspicions of pressures on banks to reject the proposal.

If the Mega shareholder proposal is accepted, then the developments will go ahead and the channel will go on air, again in 2018. The business plan that has been prepared involves moving Mega to Star's facilities, limited production and full exploitation of the channel's "archive" (old series), as well as, of course, an information sector in cooperation with Star for reasons of economy.