July 29 (SeeNews) - Slovenian privately-held news dailies Dnevnik and Vecer will receive the approval to merge from the competition authority, AVK, local media reported on Monday.
Slovenia's Competition Protection Agency has decided that the merger of Slovenia's second- and third-largest newspapers will not harm competition in the market, state broadcaster RTV SLO reported, citing unofficial information.
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According to the media report, the merged entity will hold a 40% share of the market.
In August 2018, the two dailies asked Slovenia's culture ministry and AVK to approve their merger, saying their plan is in response to the current conditions on the market where newspapers face shrinking revenues from readers and advertisers.
National daily Dnevnik has a circulation of more than 21,000, while its regional peer Vecer has a circulation of some 19,000, RTV SLO said, adding they plan to continue to be published separately since in the past 70 years Dnevnik has had its readers mainly in the area of Ljubljana and Vecer in the Maribor area.
According to a report of news outlet Siol.net, Dnevnik generated 16.6 million euro ($18.5 million) in revenue last year and 677,000 euro net profit, employing 137 people. Vecer recorded 10.3 million euro in revenue and 500,000 euro in net profit in 2018, employing 122 people.
($=0.898673 euro)