Angry Agora to rethink stake in Inforadio

Tired of playing the waiting game, Agora may sell its stake in broadcaster Inforadio if it's barred from buying more shares in the company.
By : Anna Kocinska

   Agora (http://www.agora.pl), publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza, may sell its stake in Inforadio, broadcaster of the supra-regional radio station Tok FM (http://www.tokfm.com.pl), Janusz Janiec, Agora's local-radio director, said last week.

   "We're considering the possibility of withdrawing (from Inforadio)," he said. "If (The National Television and Radio Council – KRRiTV) doesn't put us on the (station's) list of original shareholders, we will consider withdrawing."

   Agora holds some 40% of Inforadio, whose other shareholders include Polityka Spoldzielnia Pracy, the publisher of Polityka weekly, INFOR and GWR, the British radio broadcaster and subsidiary of Central European Broadcasting. Polityka, INFOR and GWR are Inforadio's only original shareholders. According to the law, entities that acquired stock in a media company after the company received its broadcasting license cannot hold more than a 49% share, and Agora has been applying in vain to the KRRiTV to be placed on the list of original shareholders. "Tok FM needs fast decisions and we're tired of KRRiTV's attitude," Janiec said. "We could take care of (Tok FM) but it would be insane to do that with 40% of the stock."

   KRRiTV is not likely to yield to Agora's demands.

   "Agora's motion was rejected and its appeal to that decision was also rejected," said Joanna Stempien, spokeswoman for Juliusz Braun, the council's chairman. "But we've received another motion, submitted by (ITI Holding), to put ITI on the list of original shareholders of Inforadio. But I don't know when that will be discussed. "ITI's Michal Broniatowski declined to comment on his company's plans regarding the radio station. However, Jerzy Baczynski, editor in chief of Polityka, said ITI was in talks to purchase stock in Inforadio. "This is why ITI submitted that motion to the council," he said. "For a long time (the shareholders in Inforadio) have been looking for a new partner. GWR, which has a 33% stake, has stopped its financing of Inforadio and now that burden has shifted to Agora and Polityka."

   Tok FM is still far from generating profit for the company. According to Agora's first-quarter results, while TOK FM's revenue increased by 23.3% in the January-March period, it generated a net loss of zl. 2.7 million ($675,000). Apart from Agora and Polityka, Inforadio's shareholders are unable to contribute much financing. "The Stefan Batory Foundation, a former shareholder in Inforadio, had to withdraw from this (commercial) venture because it's a foundation and INFOR had temporary problems with liquidity," Baczynski said. "So any free shares (after GWR exits) would leave room for a new investor from the media sector."

   Inforadio was granted a broadcasting concession in 1996 but the station only launched in March 1998. Tok FM, the sole news and talk-radio station in Poland, is available in nine cities, including Warsaw.