BILLION EURO PAPER DEAL
[BIZ/MEDIA: Oslo, August 16] Mecom Group plc will establish Mecom Europe as a fully owned subsidiary as soon as the sale of Orkla Media from Orkla ASA is finalized. This is expected to take place in late September/early October 2006. The head office of Mecom Europe will be situated in Oslo. The names and structure of the top-management in the new company is now ready. Mecom Europe will consist of all of the companies that constitute Orkla Media, with the exception of Hjemmet Mortensen and Netzeitung in Germany. In addition, Mecom Group plc will transfer the operational handling of its Dutch holdings, the Limburg Media Group, to Mecom Europe. The Berlingske Group, Mecom Europe’s Danish operations will be headed by Lasse Bolander. Bolander has been a member of the management group of Berlingske for five years and will follow Joachim S. Malling in the position as CEO in Berlingske. Norwegian operations will be headed by Kjell Johnsen. Johnsen has been CEO of the Norwegian newspapers operations of Orkla Media since 1997. Truls Velgaard will be CEO of the Central and Eastern European operations. Velgaard has been Sales and Marketing Director in Orkla Media but has, in addition, had special responsibilities towards the CEE operations. The Dutch operation, the Limburg Media Group, is headed by Johan Boermann. He has been CEO of the Limburg Media Group since 2002. Tom Jørgensen, Vice President in the Berlingske Group, will become Executive Vice President and Chief Operational Officer (COO) in Mecom Europe, with responsibilities within IT, procurement, payroll/accounting as well as knowledge sharing and cooperation within production and logistics. Jørgensen will take up his new position in January 2007. The position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Mecom Europe is vacant. This position will be responsible for business and financial controlling, group accounting and legal affairs. Stig Finslo will become Vice President and Head of Communications in Mecom Europe. He will be responsible for communications, public affairs and publishing principles. Finslo is currently Director of publishing principles and press spokesman for Orkla Media. Elise Brøchner will become Vice President and Head of Competence and Processes. She will be responsible for HR, branding and market competences within Mecom Europe. Brøchner presently holds the position of HR Director in Orkla Media. Bente Sætervoll will be Vice President and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions. Sætervoll is today a Senior Project Manager in Corporate Development and is heading the finalization of the sales process. ‘I am happy to see that we have been able to build a competent and well-qualified management team for Mecom Europe,’ say Bjørn M. Wiggen. ‘The organisation and management of Mecom Europe represents a continuation of the strategy and management of Orkla Media, while introducing some new and exciting factors.’ The new organizational structure will be formally operational at the time of the formal closing of the sale of Orkla Media AS to Mecom Group plc. See the link for the background.
Following takeovers in Scandinavia and The Netherlands which exceed EUR 1bn in value, Mecom Europe is ready, according to a release from their Scandinavian headquarters in Oslo — reproduced below:
The organizational structure of Mecom Europe builds on the current management of Orkla Media and the country based structure of its holdings. The structure of the new company will consist of strong national units and a lean corporate organization focused on corporate key processes, utilizing synergies and supporting the national strategies. Bjørn M. Wiggen will be President and CEO of Mecom Europe. He is today CEO of Orkla Media.
http://www.ketupa.net/orkla.htm
http://cws.huginonline.com/O/111/PR/200607/1065518_5_3.html