Spain’s Grupo Planeta has reached an agreement with Colombian banker Carlos Sarmiento Angulo to sell him its 55% stake in Colombia’s Casa Editorial El Tiempo (CEET). CEET publishes El Tiempo national newspaper. The news has been announced by Colombian Radio channel Radio Caracol. (Planeta has not confirmed the transaction yet). Planeta bought its stake in September 2007, when the Spanish group bought 55% of shares outstanding as well as a 40% in TV channel City TV, also a part of CEET.
Sarmiento is the biggest shareholder of the financial conglomerate Grupo Aval.
Interest in TV Channel
Planeta was not only interested in CEET’s assets, which in 2007 were valued at approximately approximately 70 million dollars, it also understood CEET as a platform to bid for a national TV sign that was about to be auctioned at the time in Colombia. Other companies including Spain’s Grupo Prisa and Venezuela’s Grupo Cisneros were also interested in the new TV Channel. The assignment of this new channel has undergone a long bureaucratic process which has substantially reduced the interest of potential bidders.
