Kommersant owner Usmanov says no plans to sell publishing house

© RIA Novosti . Mashatina MayaAlisher Usmanov
Alisher Usmanov - Sputnik International
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Alisher Usmanov, the billionaire owner of the Kommersant publishing house, denied on Tuesday a report he might sell the asset to Mikhail Prokhorov’s holding company.

Alisher Usmanov, the billionaire owner of the Kommersant publishing house, denied on Tuesday a report he might sell the asset to Mikhail Prokhorov’s holding company.

“I have no plans to sell Kommersant. No specific talks were being held with Mikhail Prokhorov. I treat reports on the theme as a good joke,” Usmanov told RIA Novosti.

Earlier on Tuesday, Dmitry Razumov, director general of Onexim Group, a company controlled by Russian tycoon Prokhorov, said in a phone interview with the Dozhd television channel that the company is in talks with Usmanov to buy the Kommersant publishing house.

A source at Onexim told RIA Novosti that Prokhorov's company would make an offer on Wednesday.

Prokhorov, who ranks third on the Forbes list of Russia’s richest people, announced on Monday his plans to challenge Vladimir Putin in March 2012 presidential elections.

The Kommersant publishing house is one of the biggest, oldest and most respected Russian news organizations. It was acquired by Usmanov, a metals tycoon with close ties to state-owned gas giant Gazprom, in 2006.

The publishing house’s director general, Demyan Kurdyavtsev, told RIA Novosti he was “sure” that should Prokhorov make an offer to purchase Kommersant, its stakeholders would consider the proposal.

Russian media reported earlier on Tuesday that Usmanov had fired the holding's CEO Andrei Galiyev and editor-in-chief of the Kommersant Vlast magazine Maxim Kovalsky after they published photos containing offensive remarks targeting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Usmanov, the owner of a minority interest in Britain's Arsenal FC, said the decision to publish the photos was "comparable to hooliganism.”

 

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