Jürgen Meixner
The forty-five-year-old Austrian Jürgen Meixner has developed a telecommunications business in his native country. Through the company "JM-Data", he owns the company "Aikol", which was announced 15 years ago to be a partner of the Macedonian "Telekabel" in the landline telephone business in the country. "JM-Data" is also the indirect owner of "Television 24" through the company "Cable 24". The sales manager for the Balkans of "JM-Data" is his wife Vesna Meixner, who is a native from the Macedonian city of Stip. Jürgen Meixner is also the owner of another, third telecommunications company - "JAnetz".
Business
Telecommunications
JM-Date
Cable 24
Janetz
Family & Friends
Affiliated Interests Family Members Friends
Jürgen Meixner's wife, is a native of the Macedonian city of Stip. She is now employed by his Austrian firm "JM-Data" as sales manager for the Balkan region.
Meixner is connected to North Macedonia and Stip through friendship and several business ventures with Robert Dimitrov, the owner of "Telekabel" cable provider. They have published several photos together on Facebook, and Dimitrov publicly spoke in 2017 that Meixner was not only his acquaintance, but that his company "Telekabel" gave loans to "Television 24".
As such, the statement made by Robert Dimitrov fueled frequent speculations that he is, in fact, the real owner of "Television 24". Additionally, the statement was the reason for the media regulator the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU) to determine whether there is an illegal concentration expressed through joint ownership between the cable provider owned by Robert Dimitrov and "Television 24". The television returned the loan, after which the agency stopped the procedure.
Robert’s sister, in 2018, tried to take over "Television 24" through the company "Robi Engineering", which she owns, but the AVMU did not allow the takeover because that is how the prohibition of concentration of media and cable operators is enabled. The "Robi Engineering" company of Zhanzhanina Stojanova is the owner of the construction company "Top Invest" from Stip. She is on the board of Directors of the joint stock company "Elmar".
The director of "Television 24" also ties Robert Dimitrov with the television. Sonja Stojanova, who, in addition to being the official manager of the television station, is also a minority shareholder in "Elmar", where Robert Dimitrov owns the majority of shares (89%). The joint stock company "Elmar" deals with leasing and management of its own real estate, accounting and owns a warehouse in Stip.
a native of Stip, is also on the board of directors of the joint-stock company "Elmar". Iliev is a former director of "Telekabel" and it was precisely him, who in 2008 publicly announced the cooperation between "Telekabel" and Meixner, which was supposed to disrupt the monopoly on the landline telephone market held by Macedonian "Telecom". For this business venture, the Austrian Meixner opened a subsidiary of his company "Aikol" in Stip, which was taken over by "Telekabel" in 2010.
In February 2011, Iliev left his directorship at "Telekabel" and a month later became the proxy of the Austrian Meixner, who was then in the process of buying Skopje's "Play Television" in order to turn it into "Television 24".
Zoran Iliev, on the other hand, is the current owner of Stip radio "Angels FM", while the previous owner of the radio was once again associated with Robert Dimitrov and "Telekabel". Namely, in 2018, an interested person submitted a petition to AVMU for illegal media concentration, arguing that the owner of "Angels FM" is the unmarried partner of Zhanzhanina Stojanova Dimitrov's sister, Zhanzhanina Stojanova. In the meantime, Zoran Iliev took over the radio, with which the agency decided that there was no illegal media concentration.
Further Information
Meta Data
The ownership structure and the financial reports are based on data recived from Central registry of the Republic of North Macedonia. The documents were received on 03.07.2023 based on a government decision from 2017 for free access for investigative journalists. The financial information is for 2022. For the calculation of the amounts in US dollars, the average exchange rate for 2022 from the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia was used.