Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, RÚV, reports that Baugur controlled Dagsbrún, the parent company of of 365 Media which publishes among other things Fréttabladid, is considering purchasing Orkla Media, a subsidiary of the Norwegian conglomerate Orkla which publishes the Danish newspapers BT, Urban and Berlingske Tidende.
According to RÚV, Orkla Media is for sale. RÚV reports that Dagsbrún has been on the look out for Nordic media companies for some time now.
Thórdís Jón Sigurdardóttir, general manager of Baugur’s Nordic Investments and chairman of Dagsbrún, told RÚV, that this was a massive investment, the company which is now for sale is valued at ISK 80-90 billion with half of the operating income coming from daily Berlingske Tidende. Thórdís also said that she did not know of examples of newspapers in the Nordic countries being delivered to homes for free [as is the case with Baugur owned Fréttabladid]. Thórdís is the sister of Hreidar Már Sigurdsson, CEO of Iceland’s largest bank, KB bank or Kaupthing. KB bank has financed or co-financed many of Baugur’s international and domestic acquisitions. It has not been reported whether KB Bank is behind the potential bid for Orkla.
Berglingske Tidende has provided critical coverage of many Icelandic investments abroad, for example, last October, it profiled Baugur investment partner and FL Group CEO Hannes Smárason.
