Following innumerable twists and turns, an important milestone has been reached in the merger of Channel 10 with Reshet. Sources inform "Globes" that following delays, the two channels' shareholders signed an agreement setting the division of shares between them on the merger date, among other things.
A new company will own 68% of the merged channel (the shareholders in the company that will hold the merged channel are Len Blavatnik, the Recanati family, and Nadav Topolski). Current Reshet shareholders Udi Angel, Idan Ofer, Michael Strauss, and Endemol will own 32% of the merged channel. Topolski will serve as chairman of the merged 10-Reshet channel and Yossi Warshavsky as CEO.
The deadline set by the Second Broadcasting Authority Council for reaching a merger agreement signed by the Reshet and Channel 10 shareholders expired last Thursday, as did the agreement for the sale of Reshet's share of the news company to Keshet, but these documents have nevertheless not yet been produced. At the same time, the Second Broadcasting Authority Council was notified that all of the documents would be submitted by Sunday.
Although the merger agreement dictates the distribution of shares in the merged channel, other shareholders are expected to enter the channel later. The reason for this two-step process is to save time. Reshet and Channel 10 want the merged channel to start broadcasting in January. If the Second Broadcasting Authority Council has to examine and approve new shareholders that do not currently have holdings in television, it will take much longer. By distributing the shares in the merged channel now, there is no immediate need to approve new shareholders, and approval of the merger agreement will be easy.
A month has passed since Channel 10 and Reshet obtained the Second Broadcasting Authority Council's for their merger, but the agreement between the shareholders was held up, as was the sale of Reshet's stake in the news company to Keshet.
Two weeks ago, Reshet and Channel 10 sent a joint letter to the Second Broadcasting Authority Council asking for postponement of the deadline for presenting a signed agreement. The request was granted with a two-week extension of the deadline. "Globes" reported a week ago that Reshet and Keshet had signed an agreement under which Reshet would sell its stake in the news company to Keshet for NIS 120 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 9, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018