KP Media sells Kyiv Post to ISTIL

KP Media (KPME) sold its inaugural publication English-language weekly Kyiv Post and the periodical Afisha to ISTIL Group, the Kyiv Post reported on its website yesterday. According to the article, negotiations had been underway intensively for the last two months. The deal price was not disclosed. ISTIL Group’s holdings include assets in real estate, media, telecommunications, film production and television production; it is owned by Pakistani businessman Mohammad Zahoor. Andriy Gostik: The weekly has been long for sale already. A few days ago, another bidder, Kyiv Media Holding, decided not to acquire the weekly and withdrew from negotiations citing poor financials and the shaky market position of the newspaper as a reason. We estimate that KP Media received hardly more than USD 1 mln from the sale. KP Media has been forced to sell or close most of its print products in the last twelve months, as they remained loss making and required further investments before they could achieve a break even point. Apparently, KP Media’s main focus will now be Internet projects.