Amid the delay in regulatory approval for the merger between Israeli television channels Channel 10 and Reshet, and the uncertainty over Channel 10's fate, efforts have been made in the past few days to avert the channel's immediate collapse. Sources inform "Globes" that Channel 10 recently raised NIS 10 million, which should help it to survive the next couple of months. A substantial part of the money was raised from an external investor who is not one of Channel 10's current shareholders.
At the same time, an attempt is being made to bring in investors as shareholders, among other things in the wake of checks that found that Len Blavatnik, who was supposed to be the main shareholder in the merged channel, cannot hold more than 49%.
Sources inform "Globes" that one of the players with whom negotiations are taking place is Eli Azur, who owns, among other things, Hebrew daily "Ma'ariv", the "Jerusalem Post" group, regional radio stations, and sports channels. Even if the talks go well, Azur will be unable to take more than a 9% stake because of cross-ownerships.
Channel 10 has large debts to various suppliers, production companies, film studios, and so on, hence the search for an investor who will inject enough company to enable the channel to survive this difficult period. Alongside the attempts to find investors, talks have been held with the channel's creditors with the aim of spreading its debts over a longer period of time, in order to reduce the immediate financial pressure.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 14, 2018
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