Stampen road to ruin – Expressen

In the early 2000s, decides toppgarnityret in Stampen – with CEO Tomas Brunegård and owner Peter Hjörne – it’s eat or be eaten in force.

During the subsequent years, following a strong expansion.

on the paper a simple business idea is to buy competitors with borrowed money, and incorporate the new papers and reap synergies.

Maud Olofsson’s brilliant business

in October 2005, buying Stampen , together with My Media and the VLT, the Group Centre Newspapers. The price, SEK 1.8 billion, has been pushed up in an auction process in several stages.

The Centre then-party leader Maud Olofsson makes a brilliant deal, it turns out.

– My assessment is they 1.8bn a group Stampen finally bought Centertidningar for was at least 600-800 million too expensive, says Stefan Melesko, associate professor of media economics at Jönköping International Business School.

the Empire swell further next year, then Stampen takes control of the VLT.

Alongside growing around businesses, as printing – printing company, V-TAB is today the largest in Sweden.

2008 buy Stampen My in-group, with 31 local newspapers in Stockholm.

2012 purchase OTW, which commissioned produces editorial communication.

But the crisis which has enabled all the purchases do not budge. Advertisers do not return to the print media, and on paper fine synergies proves difficult to implement.

Then turn it down

2013 leaves the CEO Tomas Brunegård, and köpräden is definitely over. Group reports record loss of 862 million crowns, and talks with lenders – including Handelsbanken, SEB and Nordea – is becoming more difficult.

The following years marked by cuts and divestments, including the midst of being sold to a private equity firm .

In June 2014 bought Stampen from subsidiary Promedia, where the VLT newspapers and Nerikes Allehanda-papers included.

Forced to sell the parade deck

In September of the same year can DN report that banks are forcing the family Hjörne selling entertainment floor on Polhemsplatsen and drop the magnificent collection of art and glass.

the loans, however, continues to weigh on the Stampen in 2015, current revenues are insufficient repayments of huge debt on a just over one billion – cash flow amounts to a modest 3 million.

Monday 23 May to apply Stampen of reorganization for 16 of the total of 35 different companies in the group.

the total liabilities – after to checkout deducted – is only 1.115 billion crowns.