At a creditors’ meeting at the Lisbon West Court, it was approved to cease activity, with abstention from the two main creditors, Social Security and the Tax Authority. Manuel Halpern reported that a request by 15 employees of Visão was approved to continue producing the magazine until it is sold.
The approval also included the possibility of rehiring up to six more workers for this purpose.
This measure, highlighted by Halpern, “is not binding,” but it authorizes the insolvency administrator, André Pais, to rehire workers to maintain Visão’s production activity.
However, according to Halpern, the administrator raised several issues, including the potential lack of authorization from the Media Regulatory Authority (ERC) to continue the publication under these conditions.
Regarding the sale, the two main creditors endorsed evaluating the titles together and separately, which, according to the workers’ representative, prevents “a short-term sale, as most other creditors wished,” including nearly all the workers.
Under these circumstances, the purchase proposal submitted by Visão’s workers’ group for 40,000 euros was not voted on.
André Pais further noted that there are no funds to commission the evaluation but suggested finding a valuation company willing to be paid at the end.
If this does not occur, it will be communicated to the creditors’ committee to try and resolve the issue.
Halpern also mentioned a new purchase proposal from the AEIOU group for 100,000 euros, which was not analyzed due to the main creditors’ request for evaluation.
Founded in 2017, Trust in News owns 16 media outlets in print and digital platforms, including Exame, Caras, Courrier Internacional, Jornal de Letras, Activa, Telenovelas, TV Mais, among others.
