The “Politika” building in the center of Belgrade has been sold to the company M29, owned by Boban Rajić, whose firm Media 026 is a co-owner of the company “Politika novine i magazini”, as reported on the “Politika” portal.
It was stated that the owner of the 17-story building located at Trg Politika No. 1, which has been the headquarters of the “Politika” daily newspaper for over half a century, was the NLB Bank Ljubljana since January 2006.
At that time, NLB Bank, previously known as Komercijalna Banka, which was majority-owned by the Serbian government, confirmed that it had acquired the “Politika” business building to settle the debt of “Politika” towards the bank, amounting to 37.1 million euros. According to media reports, Boban Rajić has been the owner of 50 percent of the company “Politika novine i magazini” since 2022, while the other half is owned by “Politika AD.” Rajić’s company, Media 026, also holds a 98 percent stake in “Večernje novosti,” which it purchased in 2019 for two million euros.
In mid-October this year, the joint-stock company for newspaper, publishing, and graphic activities “Politika” announced the sale of a 50 percent stake in the company “Politika novine i magazini” through the collection of written closed offers.
The advertisement published in the daily “Politika” stated that the estimated value of 100 percent of the capital of “Politika novine i magazini” was 2,217,669,000 dinars, while the estimated value of the 50 percent stake for sale was 1,108,834,000 dinars.
The advertisement also specified that offers could not be lower than 50 percent of the estimated value, i.e., less than 554,417,000 dinars.
However, since no offers were received in response to the first call, a second one was issued at the beginning of December, specifying that offers could not be lower than 20 percent of the estimated value, or less than 221,766,900 dinars.
“Politika AD” was established in 1998 as a joint-stock company owned and controlled by the state. WAZ Media Group purchased 50 percent of the shares in 2001. Today, according to media reports, Serbia directly holds an 18.5 percent stake in the company but controls 85 percent through various state institutions and public companies, such as the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia (which holds 29.4 percent of the shares in “Politika AD”), the Shareholding Fund operating within the Ministry of Finance (10 percent), and the Republic Health Insurance Fund (10 percent).
The remaining 15 percent is owned by NLB Bank (1.2 percent), AIK Bank (0.8 percent), and over 6,400 individual shareholders, each owning less than 0.7 percent.
