RJR Communications Group

Radio Jamaica Ltd. set to acquire JNN and RETV

The ink is still wet on an agreement signed Tuesday which will see the regional media giant acquiring majority shares in the two cable entities.

The agreement means the RJR Group will acquire 80 per cent of the shares in Jamaica National News Network (JNN) and a 65 percent stake in Reggae Entertainment Television Limited (RE TV).

The price tag is US$1.75 million.

Once the deal goes through, RJR will hand over just over half a million US dollars in cash of which US$470,000 will be in the form of 7 million shares in RJR.

The balance of the money will be paid only on the achievement of a three year target and the relevant changes to the regulation to allow advertising on Cable TV.

Chairman and managing Director of the RJR Group, J. Lester Spaulding says this is part of a five year plan of expansion for the group which recently entered with the cable market with the launch of the TVJ Sports Network.

Mr. Spaulding says the products on each of the cable companies will remain as vibrant as they are now and further diversify the Group's output to satisfy a wider audience.

In the meantime, the RJR Group head says the staffing structure at RE TV and JNN will remain as is for now, despite the change in shareholders.

Kimani Robinson, founder and principal shareholder of RE TV, will be retained as that entity's CEO. Mr. Balram Vaswani will remain JNN's CEO.

Mr. Spaulding adds that the operational strategies will be refined at the end of the 45 day due diligence for the sale to go through.

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