VGD Corporate Finance acted as the exclusive financial advisor to a seller during the sale of a 100% stake in Affectio, s.r.o. to CZECH NEWS CENTER a.s. Affectio runs Mimibazar, a group of advertising websites which focus on goods for families with young children. The servers also host discussion forums and content uploaded by users themselves. CZECH NEWS CENTER is the biggest media house in the Czech Republic.

CZECH NEWS CENTER (CNC) extended its online server portfolio by this acquisition in order to add new services to its visitors. “Mimibazar follows up on several of our online projects. Not just maminka.cz, ženy.cz, but also bleskprozeny.cz and others,” says Libuše Šmuclerová, CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors in CNC.

“We see a great potential for further development in Mimibazar; especially non-advertising revenues are important for us,” adds Matěj Hušek, Director of Digital Media in CNC.

Mimibazar was founded and owned by Bohdan Škoda and it has been operating its websites since 2004. Currently, Mimibazar is one of the most important players on the Czech and Slovak market and the most visited website in the family advertising market.

Bohdan Škoda said: “A search for a suitable investor and a right partner for Mimibazar went on very carefully and I am glad that further development of Mimibazar is secured by this partnership with the strong media group.

Filip Otruba from VGD Corporate Finance, which provided the seller with the transaction advisory added: “Mimibazar is such a hidden pearl of the Czech and Slovak internet. Its story is very interesting. The pages were created from scratch, with almost no marketing and it very quickly became the most popular place to sell goods for children.”

CZECH NEWS CENTER belongs to the group of CZECH MEDIA INVEST (CMI) which is owned by Daniel Křetínský (50%), Patrik Tkáč (40%) and Roman Korbaček (10%). Apart from CNC, CMI owns also CN Invest, a publisher of daily newspaper E15 and magazines Maminka, Betynka, F.O.O.D. etc.

CZECH NEWS CENTER is the strongest media organization on the Czech market, which reaches almost 3.5 million print readers and almost 5 million website visitors through its products. Tens of thousands of others use different CNC digital products and applications. Magazines Reflex, Svět motorů and ABC won an award in competition “Magazine of 2015”. CNC´s other successful projects include: BLESKmobil – the biggest virtual mobile operator in the Czech Republic, BLESK wallet – the first rechargeable payment card in the Czech Republic, BLESK energy – gas and electricity supplier. CNC also owns a printing house CZECH PRINT CENTER.

The transaction was successfully closed in June 2017.