A Canadian company this week sold its stake in the Costa Rican business daily La República to a Costa Rican company for $2 million.
The Toronto-based Hollinger Inc., once run by controversial Canadian media tycoon Conrad Black, sold out to SRB CR Limitada. The sale is expected to close in late May, Hollinger Inc. said in a statement.
SRB CR Limitada is owned by a group of local investors including the newspaper’s president, Fred Blaser. Blaser did not return Tico Times phone calls for comment this week, but said in a statement in La República that there will be no management changes to the paper.
La República was the only Latin American paper ever owned by Hollinger, a media empire that once reached across North America, Europe and the Middle East.
Former Hollinger executive Black is currently on trial for fraud charges in the United States, where the company owns majority shares in the Chicago Sun-Times and other papers. Black and three other former top Hollinger International executives were accused of pocketing millions from the sale of community papers in the United States and Canada, the Toronto Star reported.
