Media Pro Sells Media Pro Entertainment To CME In 97.6M dollars Deal

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and its CEO Adrian Sarbu signed an agreement to get all the entertainment operations of MediaPro, controlled by Sarbu, in a complex deal estimated at $97.6 million by Merrill Lynch.

CME, which already owns 8.75% of Media Pro Entertainment (MPE), will pay Sarbu $10 million cash, i 2.2 million shares of CME's Class A Common Stock and a warrant to purchase up to 850,000 shares of CME's Class A Common Stock at a price of US$ 21.75, debt assumption of approximately US$ 35.6 million, and the contribution of CME's 8.7% interest in MediaPro Management and CME's 10% interest in MediaPro BV.

Media Pro Management includes publishing company Publimedia, printing houses Coprint, news agency Mediafax, Media Pro Interactiv, Indoor Media and MediaSat.

MediaPro Entertainment includes Media Pro Pictures, Media Pro Studios, Media Pro Distribution, Pro Video, Media Pro Music & Entertainment, Cinema Pro, Hollywood Multiplex, the majority stake in Domino , which produces clips, and Media Pro Pictures sro - film operations in the Czech Republic.

"In the last 20 years Adrian has built MediaPro Entertainment into a Hollywood style production and distribution business, unique in Central and Eastern Europe. This acquisition provides our stations with a proven source of content and allows us to further diversify our revenue streams," said Ronald Lauder, f said Ronald Lauder, Non-Executive Chairman and founder of CME.

In his turn, Sarbu said contest is CME's key competitive advantage and consolidation of all such content will help optimize overall costs, improve the quality of products, leverage local talent resources and create new revenue streams.

"With the recent investment from Time Warner and the integration of MediaPro Entertainment we have made significant progress in our strategy to become a highly profitable vertically integrated media company," said Sarbu.

Mediafax