Q&A

Alter Ego Media is one of Greece’s largest diversified media and entertainment companies, with a presence in television and radio broadcasting, audiovisual content production, publishing and live entertainment. It makes most of its money from advertising, which represented c 83% of group revenue in H126, down from 88% in FY25, as Live Entertainment made its first H1 contribution and television programme licensing almost doubled. Its assets include Greece’s most popular private free-to-air television channel, MEGA. Live Entertainment is a relatively new division, following the acquisitions of a 40% stake in Stages Network in October 2025 and a majority, 50.1% stake in More.gr in March 2026. Management’s aim is to evolve the group from a traditional, advertising-dependent media company into a broader media and entertainment business with more diverse revenue streams and higher profitability. In addition to its core free-to-air broadcasting licence, Alter Ego Media has invested in a 33.33% stake in ANT1+, a domestic Greek subscription streaming (SVOD) platform with a number of important industry stakeholders with a view to creating a revamped subscription platform. The venture is subject to regulatory approval. We forecast advertising to move below 80% of group revenue in FY26 and beyond. Our forecasts include no estimates for the potential revenue and costs of the new SVOD platform.

Evangelos Marinakis, a prominent Greek entrepreneur and the company’s founder, owns a majority of Alter Ego Media through direct and indirect holdings of 73.6%. He is also the owner of Olympiacos FC and Nottingham Forest FC. The company listed on the Euronext Athens stock exchange in January 2025 at €4.0 per share, raising gross proceeds of c €57m. The free float is 26.4%. With a relatively limited free float, trading volumes may remain constrained relative to larger Greek listed peers, potentially contributing to share price volatility and limiting institutional ownership. The ownership concentration can support long-term strategic execution, although it may also result in a governance discount being applied by some investors.

Yes, Alter Ego Media pays an annual dividend, with a scrip alternative, and also returns cash through a share buyback programme. It does not have a formal dividend policy with respect to payout ratios. The FY25 dividend was €0.12 per share, and we forecast €0.20 for FY26 and €0.23 for FY27. A three-year dividend reinvestment plan was approved at the AGM in June 2025, and 85% of shareholders participated in it to reinvest their FY25 dividends in the company’s shares. In April 2026, management announced a share buyback programme with authority to repurchase up to 10% of the company’s paid-up share capital, equivalent to c 5.7m shares over 24 months.

In H126, Alter Ego Media’s revenue grew by c 25% to €74.0m, EBITDA by c 47% to €25.1m and operating profit more than doubled to €8.5m, due to good underlying growth and the first-time contribution of acquisitions made in H225 and H126. Excluding the incremental revenue and EBITDA contributed by acquisitions, underlying revenue growth was just over 8% and underlying EBITDA growth was over 29%. The EBITDA margin rose to 34.0% from 28.8% in H125, helped by higher-margin acquisitions and a decline in operating costs relative to revenue. Publishing was the strongest contributor, through better-than-expected underlying advertising growth and the consolidation of NEWSIT and TLIFE. EPS rose more than fourfold to €0.09 from €0.02 in H125. Net cash fell to €2.7m at the end of H126 from €30.7m at the end of FY25, as management invested in M&A, as promised at the time of the IPO, and returned cash to shareholders via the annual dividend and the share buyback.