Agora and Stroer race to be No. 1 outdoor advertiser

After Agora announced its final success in taking over the shares of outdoor company AMS, the publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza has now received exclusive negotiation rights, until the end of the week, to purchase another outdoor company Europlakat. German-based company Deutsche Stadte Medien, which owns a 51% stake in Europlakat Polska, has been looking for an investor for its outdoor advertiser for several months. A shortlist of interested parties, apart from Agora, include Stroer, Clear Channel Poland and investment funds Enterprise Investors and Innova Capital. Agora's interest in one more outdoor company is evidence that the publisher wants again to become the key player on the outdoor advertising market. First place on the market was captured by Stroer when it bought the Outdoor Group several weeks ago. Agora now hopes that the purchase of Europlakat would return it to preeminence. Stroer is aware it could easily lose its position, so Janusz Malinowski, Chairman of Stroer, has said that their acquisition of Cityboard Media is possible. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) M.T.