THE Russian oligarch and former KGB officer Alexander Lebedev, who has agreed to buy London's Evening Standard newspaper, used to be a KGB agent in the city in the 1980s.
Mr Lebedev is thought to have paid just £1 for the loss-making daily paper.
Its publishers, Daily Mail & General Trust,
said a controlling 75.1 per cent share of the paper would pass into the hands of Evening Press
, a company formed by Mr Lebedev and his son, Evgeny.
DMGT's Associated News-papers division is to retain a minority share of 24.9 per cent in a new firm, Evening Standard Ltd
. DMGT finance director Peter Williams said the sum received for the paper was `truly nominal, totally immaterial, doesn't matter'.
"We got nothing up front," he added. But he said DMGT would receive a preferential share of the paper's profits `when it starts making money'.
Mr Lebedev, who will become chairman of the Evening Standard board in the deal, made his fortune mostly through banking and insurance and the Russian airline, Aeroflot
.
He is chairman of the National Reserve Corporation
, the majority shareholder in one of Russia's largest banks, which has interests in textiles, food, energy, telecommunications, transport, and tourism.
Mr Lebedev is not a newcomer to the newspaper industry, having founded the news magazine Korrespondent. With former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he also jointly owns the liberal Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose correspondent, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in 2006. Mr Lebedev reportedly offered £727,000 as a reward for information to bring her killers to justice.
Mr Lebedev's 28-year-old son, Evgeny, who lives in London, is to become senior executive director of the new Evening Standard company.
He is a partner in the London restaurant Sake No Hana and investor in other restaurants in the city. He owns a hotel in Italy, a men's fashion company, Wintle
, and has donated to The Globe and Old Vic theatres. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/evening-standard-sold-908072
Some background info ....
ReplyDeleteTHE Russian oligarch and former KGB officer Alexander Lebedev, who has agreed to buy London's Evening Standard newspaper, used to be a KGB agent in the city in the 1980s.
Mr Lebedev is thought to have paid just £1 for the loss-making daily paper.
Its publishers,
Daily Mail & General Trust,
said a controlling 75.1 per cent share of the paper would pass into the hands of
Evening Press
, a company formed by Mr Lebedev and his son, Evgeny.
DMGT's Associated News-papers division is to retain a minority share of 24.9 per cent in a new firm,
Evening Standard Ltd
. DMGT finance director Peter Williams said the sum received for the paper was `truly nominal, totally immaterial, doesn't matter'.
"We got nothing up front," he added. But he said DMGT would receive a preferential share of the paper's profits `when it starts making money'.
Mr Lebedev, who will become chairman of the Evening Standard board in the deal, made his fortune mostly through banking and insurance and the Russian airline,
Aeroflot
.
He is chairman of the
National Reserve Corporation
, the majority shareholder in one of Russia's largest banks, which has interests in textiles, food, energy, telecommunications, transport, and tourism.
Mr Lebedev is not a newcomer to the newspaper industry, having founded the news magazine Korrespondent. With former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he also jointly owns the liberal Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose correspondent, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in 2006. Mr Lebedev reportedly offered £727,000 as a reward for information to bring her killers to justice.
Mr Lebedev's 28-year-old son, Evgeny, who lives in London, is to become senior executive director of the new Evening Standard company.
He is a partner in the London restaurant Sake No Hana and investor in other restaurants in the city. He owns a hotel in Italy, a men's fashion company,
Wintle
, and has donated to The Globe and Old Vic theatres.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/evening-standard-sold-908072