BRITISH intellectual property and branded-content company Apace Media said on December 1 that it would acquire a 50-per cent stake in Bulgarian cable broadcaster Diema Vision.

Apace said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange that it raised seven million UK pounds (around 10 million euro) through the issue of new shares.

“Some of the money raised will be used to fund the acquisition from Diema Group of a 50 per cent holding in Diema Vision,” the statement said. The price of the deal remains confidential for now.

Diema Group will keep the remaining 50 per cent of Diema Vision for now, but Apace has agreed to acquire another 16 per cent over the next two years, the timing for which would depend on the performance of the Bulgarian company.

Diema Vision runs four cable television channels in Bulgaria - Diema Plus, Diema 2, Diema Extra and Alexandra TV - which cover sports, movies, news and paid programmes. Diema Vision holds the home entertainment and cinema rights for some of the films it broadcasts and has the exclusive rights to broadcasting matches of the English Premiership, and French and Spanish football championships.

“This acquisition establishes Apace, alongside News Corporation, as one of the biggest multi-channel broadcasters in Bulgaria,” Apace said. US media conglomerate News Corporation runs Bulgaria’s private national broadcaster bTV and the newly launched cable television channel Fox Life.

Earlier this year, Apace acquired a 66-per cent stake in Bulgarian music media group MM Televizia for 660 000 euro. MM Televizia owns the television channels MM TV and M2, as well as the record label MM Records and a TV production company.

“We are very ambitious; we will not stop here,” said Apace chairman and CEO Didier Stoessel. In his words, the company wants to become a very strong player in the media market in this country.