A pool of investors, including VTB Capital, the investment banking arm of Russia's number two lender VTB, Alfa Capital Partners managing company, owned by country's financial-industrial conglomerate Alfa Group and Russian Media Ventures fund (RMV), may buy top advertising operator News Outdoor for $300-400 million in February, Kommersant business daily said on Friday, quoting sources close to the pool.
The companies declined to comment.
News Outdoor is part of the empire of Rupert Murdoch, an American media magnate and head of News Corporation. Murdoch became disenchanted with his Russian business back in 2008 after investigators raided the offices of his outdoor advertising company in Moscow in connection with a probe into whether it received favorable contracts from the city's advertising committee, the paper said.
France's JCDecaux group, which was interested in buying News Outdoor Russia in 2009, said that the company's revenue fell by half to $250 million that year.
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti)
