Orkla-Mecom: Delays spark hope

In Norway, Orkla Media’s journalists have expressed hope the delays in the contractual negotiations between Orkla and Mecom might signify that the deal will fall through. Their worries about Mecom's prospective takeover seem to have been confirmed by Norwegian news magazine Memo, which, for its in depth feature on Montgomery, failed to find any sources who had positive things to say about him, apart from his obvious skills as a cost-cutter. In Denmark, Berlingske reported that Montgomery had been unable to raise more than half of the necessary funds to buy Orkla Media, despite earlier reports to the contrary. The newspaper said Mecom's potential investors were reluctant to commit themselves so far ahead (the formalities on Mecom's side will not be finalised until October), especially seeing the current instability in the world economy. This led the newspaper to speculate that Orkla might have to raise its stake in Mecom Europe from the agreed 15 to 25 per cent in order to complete the sale now. That would make Orkla the majority shareholder in the new company, which would no doubt be welcome news to Orkla Media's employees whose representatives on many occasions have commended Orkla's responsible management of its newspaper arm. However, it would clearly contradict the company's professed desire to get out of the media industry and would probably not sit quite as well with Orkla's shareholders.