Albanian businessman Samir Mane buys SCAN TV – Exit
Albanian investment group Balfin, owned by Samir Mane, has announced the purchase of media channel SCAN TV.
The channel covers the country’s industrial, financial, real estate and commercial news. According to a statement from Balfin, Scan TV plans to expand its coverage to include North Macedonia and Kosovo, becoming the first commercially oriented TV channel in the Western Balkans.
The value of the transaction has not been made public.
“Balfin Group aspires to create media that addresses economic and business issues by providing comprehensive, professional and unbiased information about Albania and the region. We will invest in the creation of a professional media channel that can meet the expectations of a regional television dedicated to business-related issues,” said Balfin Group CEO Edlira Muka.
Scan TV was established in 2001.
The Balfin Group is active in a number of sectors, including real estate, retail, tourism, agriculture, energy, minerals and services throughout South East Europe, as well as in Austria and the Netherlands, according to information published on its website.
Mane is the chairman of the Balfin Group, which is considered one of the largest and most successful in the Balkans.
It includes over 50 companies across the WB6 and beyond. His other business ventures include TEG, QTU, supermarket and fashion chains, and luxury residential developments Rolling Hills where properties typically sell for 1 million euros and more.
It has also benefited from government COVID-19 lines of credit, including its Neptun, Fashion Group, Kid Zone stores and Albchrome mines which it recently sold to Turkish group Yildrim.
Concerns have long been raised about the plurality of media in Albania, particularly in the way powerful businessmen own media which is then used to spread their own narrative or curry favor with the government.
These concerns have been repeatedly raised by Reporters Without Borders and other leading organizations who have called for urgent diversification to ensure independent information reaches the Albanian public.