Radio Jamaica announced that its due diligence exercise for Reggae Entertainment Television (RETV) and Jamaica News Network, (JNN) has been completed and the Board of Directors of RJR has approved that effective Friday afternoon RJR completed the acquisition transaction.
The transaction is being completed on terms that were disclosed on August 15, 2006 when RJR made an offer, subject to du diligence, to acquire 65% of the shares in RETV and 100% of the shares in JNN for US$1.75 million to be paid in cash and shares over a three year period.
RJR on Friday also confirmed that the former principals in both companies, Kimani Robinson and Balram Vaswani have agreed to be retained as Chief Executives of the respective entities, and with that agreement will have 20% of JNN shares as a part of their compensation package, reducing RJR’s stake to 80%.
“The first round of hard work is over, in getting us to understand the companies, assess them and confirm that what we want to acquire is what we are getting”, RJR Chairman J.A. Lester Spaulding said, adding that the real exciting part of the project is about to begin as the potential of the two entities is about to be unleashed.
“We are all excited about the future, as we see tremendous synergies between JNN and our News and Sports Centre, and there are exciting export and development prospects with the reggae entertainment brand through RETV globally”, Mr. Spaulding said.
The Company announced the appointment of new Boards of Directors of the two companies: with Mr. Spaulding anchoring both as Chairman;
Other directors are, his RJR Group Deputy Managing Director and experienced journalist and media excecutive with regional and international experience, Gary Allen;
RJR Group Financial Controller of several years and former auditor, Roxiana Malcolm;
Well known and experienced radio and entertainment media specialist Francios St Juste;
Marketing, finance and telecommunications practitioner, Ian Neita,;
Kimani Robinson, Balram Vaswani with Joey Issa on the JNN Board, and Paul Scott on the RETV Board.
Mr. Spaulding also announced that with immediate effect, Mr. Allen will take oversight control of the two companies and work with an integration team of RJR/TVJ, RETV and JNN managers to develop medium and long term plans for the companies.
