Russian-Greek investor Ivan Savvidis has purchased 19.63 percent of the shares in the troubled Athens-based Teletypos, the owner of the national broadcaster Mega.
The sale was announced by Pegasus Publications S.A., which up until now owned a majority stake in Teletypos as well as controlling shares in print media. As a result of the transaction, Pegasus stake in Teletypos drops from 32.73 percent to 13.09 percent.
Savvidis has surged onto the national limelight over recent years with his purchase of a popular northern Greece football team (PAOK Thessaloniki), a northeastern Greece cigarette manufacturer (SEKAP) and other holdings, including Thessaloniki’s best-known five-star hotel (Makedonia Pallas).
He’s also attracted his fair share of controversy for participating in an ultimately nullified auction for national television broadcast licenses and as the perceived beneficiary of a recently passed law writing off fines for certain companies. The latter development would ostensibly erase 38 million euros of fines for the cigarette maker he purchased, fines imposed before he assumed control of the company for tobacco smuggling.
Savvidis was also the target of opposition criticism for his statements in support of the current leftist Tsipras government.
