Gedi in negotiations with the MSC group of the shipowner Aponte for the sale of the Secolo XIX

As per rumors in recent months, the Gedi group has signed a preliminary agreement with the MSC group for the sale of Secolo XIX to a company wholly controlled by the Swiss-based giant. The parties will now enter into exclusive negotiations and discuss the contractual documents that will govern the operation, which also includes digital activities […]

As per rumors in recent months, the group Gedi signed a preliminary agreement with the group Msc for the transfer of 19th century to a company wholly owned by the Swiss-based giant. The parties will now enter into exclusive negotiations and discuss the contractual documents that will govern the transaction, which also includes the digital activities and advertising collection and four newspapers connected to the Genoa newspaper: The MediTelegraph, L’Avvisatore Marittimo, Il Giornale del Ponente Ligure and Ttm – Tecnologie Trasporti Mare. In recent days the journalists of the Century went on strike against the hypothesis of selling off the newspaper, asking that any sale should have as counterparty “subjects of dimensionscapacity, positioningvision and willingness to make consistent investments with our history.”

The owner’s family Aponte to which MSC belongs is certainly a lot liquid but in the list of the many sectors in which it operates – from cruise traffic to railway traffic (the acquisition of 50% of Italo dates back to last year) – there is currently no publishing. According to Gedi’s CEO, Maurizio Scanavinothe operation “aims to ensure a solid future for an important newspaper like Il Secolo XIX” and MSC will accompany “its evolution in this new phase of its history, giving rise to a collaboration with Gedi that reflects affinities and shared values ​​of two important Italian business families”.

With this sale the publishing company led by John Elkann completes the process of divestment of the local newspapers which led to the sale The city of Salerno, The Tyrrhenian Seathe Reggio Journalthe Journal of Modena And New Ferrara, New Sardinia and lastly the newspapers of the Northeast (Il Mattino di Padova, The Tribuna of Treviso, The New of Venice and Mestre, The Corriere delle Alpi, Il Messaggero Veneto, The small, Northeast Economy). In addition to the weekly L’Espresso. According to Scanavino “Gedi will now focus on two priority objectives: grasping all the potential of digital transition ongoing, in full respect of the identity of its publications the Republic And The printand at the same time develop new initiatives and entertainment projects, which originate from the quality of our three radios (Deejay, Capital and m2o), to build a strong, innovative and dynamic digital media company”.