Albanian investment group Balfin, owned by Samir Mane has announced the purchase of media station SCAN TV.
The channel covers industrial, financial, real estate, and business news in the country. According to a statement from Balfin, Scan TV plans to expand its coverage to include North Macedonia and Kosovo, becoming the first business-orientated TV channel in the Western Balkans.
The value of the deal has not been made public.
“Balfin Group aspires to build a media that addresses economic and business-related issues by providing complete, professional, and unbiased information from Albania and the region. We will invest in the creation of a professional media channel that can respond to the expectations of a regional television dedicated to business-related issues,” Balfin Group CEO, Edlira Muka, said.
Scan TV was established in 2001.
The Balfin Group is active in a number of sectors including real estate, retail, tourism, agriculture, energy, the mineral industry and services across Southeast Europe, as well as in Austria and the Netherlands, according to information posted on its website.
Mane is the president of Balfin Group which is reported as one of the biggest and most successful in the Balkans.
It comprises of more than 50 companies across the WB6 and beyond. His other business ventures include TEG, QTU, supermarket and fashion chains, and the luxury Rolling hills residential compounds where properties typically sell for EUR 1 million and up.
He has also benefitted from government COVID-19 credit lines, including his stores Neptun, Fashion Group, Kid Zone, and Albchrome mines which he recently sold to the Turkish Yildrim group.
Concerns have long been raised about media plurality in Albania, particularly in the way that powerful businessmen own media that is then used to push their own narrative or curry favour with the government.
These concerns have been raised multiple times by Reporters Without Borders and other leading organisations who have called for an urgent diversification to ensure independent information reaches the Albanian public.
