After a year of strips and loosers in the hurry – although many extend it more in time – and in principle resolved after the obligatory exit of some of its protagonists, the waters still do not return to their channel. Now, for some … And others, the most immediate objective is involve all shareholders at the next Board of the media group planned for the month of June, if not before. But, even so, the swords continue at high, especially among the president, Joseph Oughourlian, and the critical shareholders with their management, captained by which they were its director of content in Hurry Media, José Miguel Contreras.
The fact is that, according to company sources, There was never any empathy Between Oughourlian and Contreras, a logical heir in the position of the sadly deceased Miguel Barros The disagreements with presidency, this time, for the start -up of a new open television channel.
The sources consulted emphasize that Oughourlian’s relationship with Contreras was not, even by Asomo, similar to the one he had with his predecessor in office. Barroso – political and media bambalins known as the soul of the duo ‘Los Migueles’ next to Contreras, architects of much of the strategy that served Pedro Sánchez To overcome in the surveys after the negative result of the municipal and regional elections of 2023 – he had undoubtedly reached the arrival of Sanchismo, the summit of his long professional career when he was appointed editorial advisor of the Prisa Group. And it was precisely that good relationship that validated him as the representative in the Council of the Oughourlian Amber Fund, holder of 29.8% of the group’s capital, who precisely granted him plenipotentiary powers in the management of the editorial line of both media.
Everything seemed to indicate that the relationship with his successor, Contreras, did not have to change. But it was not so. The sources of the environment of Amber Capital sign that Contreras never managed to internalize that the arrival of Oughourlian to the presidential chair in December 2020 – he was at the shareholder since 2010 and as a Sunday counselor since 2015 – was “for pure business. Your money and reputation are played. An entrepreneur who is neither left or left center, nor right -wing. It is only that, inverter and firm defender of those who have opted and have put their money in the company », to which – say those around him -” he will not leave and will ever betray. ”
A position that are questioned by those who are part of the group of shareholders and managers related to Moncloa: «We must not forget that it is a fund and seeks to make their investment profitable, nothing more. If you receive an offer that you consider appropriate for your shareholding package, you will sell fixed. AND The offer was put on the tablebut … it wasn’t adequate.
Not surprisingly, these same sources remember that in the summer of 2023, Oughourlian moved the idea that before the disastrous health of the group was necessary to put on sale the division of the media of communication (‘El País’, ‘The Being’, ‘Five days’ and ‘As’ …), an extreme that critics understood as the trigger for the beginning of a long battle that would undoubtedly end at warp War for any other non -consensual decision, as was the proposal of those same shareholders to the president of hurry to sell the Santillana publishing house or the launch of a new digital television channel. “That wanting to get rid of the media made us panic, put an eye on us and react,” says the sources.
In that August, the shareholders related to the Moncloa already raised an offer that they put again on February on the table of the president of the group in parallel to the ‘Totum revolution’ of the new DTT: 450 million for the media division and maintain the management of Santillana, receiving 100 million euros and the remaining 350 million to reduce the group’s debt, from about 800 million. In addition, in the plan they put the renegotiation of the expiration of the debt with Pimco, extending the period from 2026 to 2029. But he told them “no.” The price would not fall from the 1.8 billion, “to put a figure that was completely unassumable.”
But the thorn nailed and “the obsession of Contreras to have a television under their control,” add the sources close to the president of the group, was his grave, and ended up breaking the relationship. For the surrounding environment, in the last year Contreras has been tensing the rope and injecting his own dream into the head of the government president. The manager, architect of the birth of the sixth with a marked socialist bias, tried Replicate the formula with the new television in a hurry. «In all this time, Contreras has convinced Pedro Sánchez to create a new sixth (or the seventh or whatever they would like to). The idea that transmits to the president is that all the teles have gone to the right, even the sixth itself, which clearly emits to bother and go against the government, doing the work to the right, ”explain the sources. Therefore, the birth of its own television seemed urgent, with the firm objective of capturing the market share of La Sexta, 2%, a chain that had losses of 750 million before selling it to Atresmedia.
«When the new license raised to our president, without excusing him the idea since his beginnings, he told them that they will find a partner to support it, with capital and knowledge. The own Oughourlian sought among several expert international actorsserious and successful in their countries, but Contreras and Núñez refused. They wanted a partner, yes, but Spanish, ”add the same sources.
Reaction to ‘no’ to DTT
The events began to precipitate even more if possible when starting 2025. There was no reversal. If this president “did not swallow” with the license to relive the new sixth, it would be necessary to look for another and, while, they would urgently and urgently seek the support of the rest of the shareholders to overthrow it, with “secret” meetings with the domes of Vivendi, Santander, with the Polanco family and even with Carlos Slim. But Oughourlian knew everythinghe gave him time to react, find allies and arm himself with reasons to continue leading management.
On February 14, the CEO of Vivendi (with almost 12% of the hurry capital), Arnaud de Puyfontaine – according to the French semiar Marc Murtra, was threatening himfirst by phone, and then in an appointment taking advantage of the AI summit in Paris, which was also Adolfo Utor, who has 5.4% and Diego Prieto, with 3.12%). They receive the “no” by response. The error was “that they did not finish the play: only threats and nothing in exchange for selling that package.”
And while “behind her” they sought financing and related to the cause, Carlos Núñez tells the president to publish an interview in ‘El País’ on February 16 to announce that the TV license in open is already a fact. Oughourlian gives him his ok – Despite knowing that there was not yet a license, no guarantees or money – to earn time and prepare the advice on Tuesday, February 25. That day, with the support achieved throughout that week, the president hurriedly cast the project and caused the resignation of Núñez and the departure of Contreras. A day later, he grants an interview with ‘Expansion’ where he explains why his rejection of DTT.
The Oughourlian movement in the Board of Directors was decisive to knock the television initiative and end the ‘rebels’ of a single blow. What comes now becomes complicated but it is about arrive with a “comfortable majority” to the Board of Shareholders and win the vote of everything that is raised and, above all, reaffirm its continuity and give signs of force at the head of the media group. Then, who knows if «we will speak again and if they want to sell the company. Of course, they will have to do it for 100% of the group, and if he is interested in selling, selling and will leave. But there will have to be money for everyone. Not just for him. Some already slide that the Government plans the Telefónica de Murtra who throws a total OPA at at least 0.67 euros per share, which would mean a more than 40% premium at current market prices.
The ace in the sleeve of each side in Poor
The problem, knowledgeable sources of this plan are pointed out, is that Murtra has his board in a couple of weeks And he has enough to deal with the recommendation of the powerful ‘Proxy Advisor’ ISS to reject his appointment as president of Telefónica. The trip to Paris and the pressure to Vivendi – they continue – has left some exposed and, above all, he has angered Sánchez, who has once again verified that risky tasks “can only do them personally if he does not want to be evidenced.”
The ace that is stored in the sleeve each side passes in any case to get support among the shareholders and go to the Board with the clear solution for their interests. The newly appointed president of ‘El País’ is confident that several convertible bond holders will change them by actions before that key date, and thus be able to have more support against the ‘rebels’, whose challenge is to reach at least 51% support to dismiss him, for which they are negotiating in parallel with the Polanco family, which maintains a 7.6% hurry; Carlos Slim, with 7% and Santander, with another 4%.
The sources explain that several of the institutional investors that Oughourlian himself managed to attract to buy these bonds have assured him that They will support him in his battle against shareholders That today they have only 17% set, around the Alconaba group.
In short, the war for hurry control – and not because of the professionalization of the environment as agreed under a co -government also broken from the landing in the presidency of businessman Franco Armenio – comes from afar, and has been fighting battle after battle, Without still a clear winner today.
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