Finland's Sanoma exits Russian magazine business

Sanoma is to sell its remaining Russian businesses, including a stake in magazine publisher Fashion Press, to InVenture Partners, a group of local investors, Finland's largest media group said on Wednesday.

The proposed deal forms part of Sanoma's efforts to shed its Russian assets to focus on its main markets of Finland and the Netherlands. Earlier this year, it sold its other Russian businesses, including a stake in Delovoi Standard, the publisher of newspaper Vedomosti, and a handful of other magazine titles.

Sanoma had originally tried to sell the assets to Hearst Shkulev Media, partly owned by U.S. publisher Hearst, but the deal was blocked in August by Russian authorities under foreign ownership laws.

The latest proposal includes Sanoma's 50-percent stakes in Fashion Press, which publishes magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Esquire in Russia, and Mondadori Independent Media, the publisher of Grazia magazine.

The price tag on the deal, which still requires government approval, was not disclosed.