Ekspress Grupp: Owners reorganize the activities of the publishing company AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus

Tallinn, Estonia, 2018-02-21 10:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

AS Ekspress Grupp and Suits Meedia OÜ have signed an agreement under which the
activities of AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus will be reorganized. After the
reorganization, the six monthly magazines and weekly magazine Kroonika,
belonging to the AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus, will be published by Ekspress Meedia
and the remaining publications of the publishing company will merge with the SL
Õhtuleht. 

According to the agreement, Ekspress Meedia, the subsidiary of Ekspress Grupp,
will take over the publishing of the monthly magazines (Eesti Naine, Anne ja
Stiil, Pere ja Kodu, Oma Maitse, Tervis Pluss and Jana) and the weekly magazine
Kroonika belonging to the AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus. AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus
together with the rest of publications will be merged with AS SL Õhtuleht;
after the merger the name of the new legal entity will be AS Õhtuleht
Kirjastus. The merger will be completed in 2018. The transaction must be
confirmed by the Competition Authority. Until then, the AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus
will continue its activities separately. The ownership structure of the newly
merged firm AS Õhtuleht Kirjastus will not change. As before, the Ekspress
Grupp will own 50% and Suits Meedia 50% of the company. 

The reorganization will be carried out to enhance future perspectives of the
magazines. The main goal of the reorganization is to create a better
online-output of the content of printed magazines of Ajakirjade Kirjastus,
integrating these more tightly with strong digital publishing platforms of the
owning companies Eesti Ekspress and Suits Meedia. In 2018 it makes no sense to
start contributing to the construction of a new large online center, rather it
would be reasonable to find synergy with the existing platforms, i.e. Delfi and
Õhtuleht. There is no intention to close any of the currently published
magazines. For subscribers of magazines all subscriptions will remain as they
are at the current moment. 

Ekspress Group's 2016 consolidated revenue was 63 million euros including its
joint ventures' share 50%. Sales revenue of the magazines to be obtained 100%
by Ekspress Grupp will be after the transaction fully recognized in the Group's
consolidated sales revenues. Their annual impact to the consolidated figures
will be ca 2 million euros. 


         Additional information:
         Mari-Liis Rüütsalu
         Chairman of the Management Board
         GSM: [phone]
         e-mail: [e-mail]