Grupo El Comercio (hoy Vigenta Inversiones S.A.)
The Comercio or Ecomedia –controlled by Miró Quesada y García Miro- is the biggest media group and is located between the 170 most important companies, a list that is made by “Perú: The top 100.000 companies of 2015”. In 2015, revenues of this group and the subsidiaries were higher than the total received by all the media graphic system of Peru. The newspaper –created in the XIX century by two migrants who arrived to Lima in the middle of the emancipatory wars- passed to the Miró Quesada family in 1875, they survived one of its director’s murder in 1933 and the confiscation by the leftist military dictatorship between 1974 and 1980.
The company which originated the Group was born with the name of Infobanco-Servicios Teleinformativos in 1991 and changed to Empresa Editora el Comercio S.A. However, its entrepreneurship power and influence on the public opinion grew strong in the last decade, and at the same time, it entered into the TV market after the purchase of Compañía Peruana de Radiodifusión (América Televisión o Canal 4). During the presidential elections of 2006 and 2011, according to various political analysis, El Comercio supported candidate Alan García and Keiko Fujimori, both from the right, against the nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, who finally won the round. That same year, Nobel prize in Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa resigned as columnist of the newspaper through a letter in which he considered that Meier had turned the newspaper into a "propaganda machine for the candidacy of Keiko Fujimori." Two years later, in 2013, the group bought more than 50% of shares from the company who published the printed newspapers of their competitors: Epensa. After the operation was disclosed, a group of journalists denounced El Comercio for violating freedom of speech and media pluralism by concentrating almost 80% of the effective circulation of newspapers. The process called "concentration" is in the judiciary, but is expected to get the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH) based in Costa Rica.
After this claim, El Comercio group started a process of diversification in 2014, changing its company name from Empresa Editora El Comercio S.A. to Vigenta Inversiones S.A. and they started a new business in education and entertainment, in Chile and Colombia. That same year they announced their new corporate name, from El Comercio Group to Ecomedia.
Mother Company
Empresa Editora El Comercio S.A
Business Form
Private.
Legal Form
Limited Company.
Business Sectors
Entertainment, real estate and education.
Individual Owner
José Alejandro Graña Miró Quesada
Peruvian (1945), architect and member of the Miró Quesada family. Businessman, owner and chairman of the country's largest construction company, Graña & Montero (G&M), one of the seven Peruvian companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ranked eighth on the list of major groups in Peru, according to the publication "Peru: the top 10,000 companies 2015." The XXXV Power Survey of the “Semana Economica (Economy Week)” magazine considered him as one of the 30 most powerful people in Peru in 2015. Between 1999 and 2014, he was a member of the Board at the Empresa Editora El Comercio S.A., a position in which his daughter eventually replaced him. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Banco de Crédito del Perú (Credit Bank of Peru). Before that he held the same position at Telefónica del Perú, Refinería La Pampilla and Edegel. G&M and its subsidiaries in 7 other Latin American countries have entered the licensing business in the road, rail, oil, gas and electricity sectors. Although the owner of Graña & Montero maintains a low profile -he has not held public office nor is known to be affiliated with any political party- his company has been chosen during the last three Peruvian governments (Alejandro Toledo, Alan García and Ollanta Humala) to take charge of the main megaprojects in construction; in some cases associated with Odebrecht, the Brazilian transnational company involved in the biggest corruption scandal in recent years: the Lavajato case. (More information here).
Enriqueta Graña Miró Quesada
Peruvian (1950), member of the Miró Quesada family, José Graña’s little sister and linked to the largest construction company in Peru: Graña & Montero (see interests of Jose Alejandro Grana Miró Quesada). Has not held public office nor has any registered political affiliation
Alfonso Miró Quesada de la Fuente ‘Foncho’
Peruvian (1934), member of the Miró Quesada family and member of the board at Editora El Comercio S.A. He has not held public office and he has been dedicated to cultural activity for nearly his entire life. No registered political affiliation. His nephew-in-law is Juan José Garrido Koechlin, director of the newspaper Perú21.
Other Print Outlets
El Comercio, Perú21, Trome, Gestión, Correo, Ojo, Depor, ElBocón, Publimetro, Diario The New York Times-versión Perú, Revista Somos,Revista Casa & Más,Revista Hola Perú, Revista G, Revista Ruedas & Tuercas, Revista Vamos, Revista Aptitus, Revista Urbania Premiun, Revista Mujer Trome, Revista Mujer Actual.
Other TV Outlets
AméricaTv, Canal N.
Other Online Outlets
www.ElComercio.pe, www.Perú21.pe, www.Trome.pe, www.Gestion.pe, www.Diariocorreo.pe, www.Ojo.pe, www.Show.pe, www.Depor.pe, www.Elbocon.pe, www.Publimetro.pe., www.Peru.com, www.Laprensaperu.com, www.americatv.com.pe, www.Canaln.pe, www.Elshow.pe, www.Mujerpandora.com, www.Tuderechoaelegir.pe
Media Business
Media companies
Compañía Peruana de Radiodifusión S.A. , Prensmart S.A.C. , Prensa Popular S.A.C, Publiqualy S.A.C., Orbis Ventures S.A.C., Peru.com S.A , Servicios Especiales de Edición S.A. , Grupo Tv Perú S.A.C., Plural Tv S.A.C. , Revistas Amauta S.A.C. , Productora Peruana de Información S.A. , Producciones Cantabria S.A.
Digital business
Clasificados.pe, Neoauto.com, Aptitus.com, Urbania.pe, Clubelcomercio.pe, Ecomedia.pe, Perured.pe, Peruquiosco.pe, Peruid.pe, Pagoefectivo.pe, Menuperu.elcomercio.pe, Ofertorp.pe, Elcomercio.aptitus.com, DataImágenes, Suscripciones Digitales, Catálogos virtuales (Oe e Hiraoka), Houseonline
Printing business
Zeta Comunicadores, Amauta Impresiones Comerciales y Alfa Beta Sistemas
Editorial
Punto & Coma Editores
Business
Entertainment
Vigenta Entretenimiento (Se fusionó con Vigenta Inversiones en el 2016), Atracciones Coney Island (70%) y 4Kids Corporation (51%)
Sector Inmobiliario
Vigenta Inmobiliaria, Inmobiliaria El Sol del Perú (100%), Edificio Leonard (100%) y Houseonline S.A. (85%)
Education
Instituto de Educación Superior Tecnológico Privado Red Avansys (100%),Universidad Privada Peruano Alemana (99%), Proyectos Educativos Integrales del Perú (75%) y Vigenta Educación (Se fusionó con Vigenta Inversiones en el 2016)
Colombia
Diver Happy (70%) y Divertrónica Medellín (70%)
Chile
Yukids (70%)
Bolivia
Zetta Flexo Gráfica de Bolivia (99%).
General Information
Founding Year
1839
Founder
Manuel Amunátegui (Chilean) y Alejandro Villota (Argentine)
Affiliated Interests Founder
The two founders of the newspaper “El Comercio” arrived in Peru in the 19th century, during the wars of independence in South America. Amunátegui served in the military of the Spanish crown and Villota served in the liberation army of José de San Martín.
Employees
Around 4.700 workers in 2016 (Vigenta Inversiones and its subsidiaries).
Contact
Tax/ ID Number
Ruc: 20143229816
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
US$432 million approximately (S/ 1,472 million.) Data from El Comercio (2015).
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
US$58 million approximately (S/ 197.2 milion). Data from el Comercio (2015).
Advertising (in % of total funding)
US$370 million, approximately (S/ 1.261 million) Data from El Comercio (2015). # Advertising represents a little more than 80% of the group revenues.
Management
Executive Board
The Board is composed of 9 people, all of them are shareholers of the parent company and members of the Miró Quesada family with an average age of 65.
Chairman of the Board since 2017.
Current Chairman of the board of directors of América Televisión, the most important channel in Peru. Until 2014, he was member of the board of Graña & Montero, construction company owned by his cousin José Graña. Between 1998 and 2005, he was Chairman of the Board of El Comercio. He is member of the board of directors of the media group from 1991 and he was Deputy Manager between 1983 and 1994.
Current Chairman of the Consejo de la Prensa Peruana and the Peruvian Association of Gastronomy-Apega. He was vice minister of culture during the term of President Alan García and member of the high-level committee of «Lugar de la Memoria » (Place of Memory). He was one of the creators of Canal N, the first exclusive news channel of Peru.
His uncle Alejandro Miró Quesada Cisneros was director of El Comercio.
Ex editor of El Comercio newspaper. She ran for Congress in 2000 for a political party linked to former President Alberto Fujimori (imprisoned for human rights violations and corruption). She was a member of the board of directors at “El Comercio” until early 2000. Her cousin Alejandro Miró Quesada Cisneros, then director of the newspaper, accused her of leading a minority sector of shareholders to pressure him to step down during the fall of the Fujimori regime. This case reached the Inter-American Press Association. After that Meier ended up withdrawing from the media. In 2008, she returned to the newspaper as editor of the weekend edition, being well-known in her public affiliation with Fujimori in the elections between Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala in 2011. That same year, Nobel prize in Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa resigned as columnist of the newspaper through a letter in which he considered that Meier had turned the newspaper into a "propaganda machine for the candidacy of Keiko Fujimori." He remained in office for six years, until he was dismissed for the second time in 2015 by decision of the current director Fernando Berckemeyer.
Journalist at many sections of El Comercio's newspaper. She is the youngest member of the board.
Lawyer. Son of Emilio Rodríguez Larraín and Milagros Miró Quesada Martens.
He was CEO of a Wiese's group company
He was CEO of Telefonica in Chile.
He was chairman of DirecTV Latinoamerica.
Beekeper businessman.
Non-Executive Board
Editor-in-Chief of Perú21. Peruvian economist with undergraduate, master's and PhD studies in universities in the US, Canada and Spain. He ran for Congress for the party “Adelante” in 2011, but was unsuccessful. A year later he became the presenter of “Rumbo Económico (Economic Direction),” a program on Canal N. In early 2013 he was elected executive director of the NGO “Soluciones Empresariales contra la Pobreza (Business Solutions against Poverty),” created two years ago by the two largest business associations in Peru: the “Confederación Nacional de Instituciones Empresariales Privadas (National Confederation of Private Business Institutions) (Confiep)” and the “Sociedad Nacional de Industrias (National Society of Industries) (SNI),” then managed by the businessmen Humberto Speziani and Pedro Olaechea Álvarez Calderón (Congressman for Kuczynski’s party for the period 2016-2021 and uncle of the current director of “El Comercio” Fernando Berkemeyer). In October 2013, he took over the newspaper Perú21. Between 2004 and 2005 he was Business Development manager of the construction company Grana & Montero, owned by José Graña Miró Quesada, one of the largest individual shareholders of “El Comercio”. He is also Alfonso Miró Quesada de la Fuente’s nephew-in-law; one of the principal owners of the newspaper. He considers himself liberal. He appears in the top 10 of the written press sector, in the annual survey of power in Peru (2016), prepared by “Semana Económica (Economy Week)”.
Operations Central Manager. Industrial engineer, employee in El Comercio for more than 20 years, a member of the family.
Vice President of El Comercio. She joined the Board in 1998. She is married to the lawyer Emilio Rodríguez-Larraín, shareholder and chairman of the Peruvian airline Lan Perú).
He was vice minister of culture during the term of President Alan García and member of the high-level committee of «Lugar de la Memoria » (Place of Memory). He was one of the creators of Canal N, the first exclusive news channel of Peru.
Other Influential People
MInoritary shareholder of El Comercio. Peruvian lawyer. Married to the vice president of El Comercio, Milagros Miró Quesada Martens, and partner of the Bureu Rodríguez Larraín. He was secretary general of the Ministry of Economic and Finance (1982), deputy minister of Fishing (1984-1985) and member of the board of Panamericana Televisión, Radio Programas del Perú and Compañía Latinoamericana de Radiodifusión. He is shareholder and chairman of the board of Lan Perú airline since 2004, and is chairman of the board of Inmuebles Comerciales del Perú, a Peruvian company owned by Chilean corporation Parque Arauco, which has different subsidiaries that, in turn, own some of the main shopping centers in Peru: Larco Mar, for example.
Member of the Board of the Compañía Peruana de Radiodifusión which runs América Televisión and Canal N. Member of the family who owns "El Comercio," shareholder and brother-in-law of the late Eduardo Calmell del Solar, who fled Peru after selling the editorial line of the newspaper that he controlled to the Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Service) (SIN) which was run by Vladimiro Montesinos. In 2010, the seminar "Hildebrandt en sus trece" revealed a recording of a long conversation between Miró Quesada Ferreyros and the lawyer Alberto Quimper, who were involved in a corruption case called "Petroaudios" during Alan García’s administration. In the recording the latter suggests the director of the aforesaid media organization to do "collateral business with the channel...because it pays a lot of money". A year later, in 2011, the digital media organization "IDL-Reporteros" revealed Quimper’s declaration in Congress, who was then in prison, about the range of his contact with Miró Quesada Ferreyros. The latter then told the lawyer that the "Petroaudios" investigation would not be broadcast by América Televisión.
General Manager at América Televisión. Business Manager of Bolivian nationality. He began working for this media organization in 2003, when it almost went bankrupt after entering bankruptcy proceedings and was involved in a political scandal thanks to its previous owners, Jose Francisco and Jose Enrique Crousillat, who fled after revealing that they had sold the editorial line of the channel to former presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos.
Editor-in-chief of América Televisión and Canal N. Colombian journalist. Editor-in-chief at América Televisión and Canal N. Former director at RCN Noticias in Colombia. She replaced the journalist Laura Puertas, who was fired from the channel for "humanizing" the then nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala during the 2011 election. During the Ospina administration, the program “Cuarto Poder (Fourth Power),” one of the channel's most-watched shows, revealed a testimony of a DEA informant who accused a congressman and financier of Keiko Fujimori of money laundering during the last election in a case in both Peru and the United States. No registered political affiliations. She appears 11th in the television sector of the annual power survey in Peru (2016), produced by Semana Económica (Economy Week) magazine.
Sub director of El Comercio. Is a lawyer. He studied Law at the Pontifical Universidad Católica del Perú at the same time as Fernando Berckemeyer. Between 2011 and 2012 he worked at the Aramburú Heudebert & Asociados studio (specialized in tax, mining and gas), one of the partners of which is the lawyer Fernando Berckemeyer Conroy, father of the current director of “El Comercio.” When Berckemeyer was named head of the Editorial section of the newspaper in 2012, he took Pasquel as his deputy editor. Between 2007 and 2011, Pasquel worked at the specialized authority for the elimination of bureaucratic barriers, unfair competition and dumping at the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) as a civil servant. Between 2005 and 2008 he was a researcher at the “Instituto Libertad y Democracia (Institute of Liberty and Democracy)” (ILD), the NGO founded by the economist Hernando de Soto. In 2016, he appeared in the written press top 10 in the annual survey on the power in Peru, produced by the magazine “Semana Económica (Economy Week).” In his opinion columns, Pasquel considers himself liberal.
Editor-in-Chief of Perú21. Peruvian economist with undergraduate, master's and PhD studies in universities in the US, Canada and Spain. He ran for Congress for the party “Adelante” in 2011, but was unsuccessful. A year later he became the presenter of “Rumbo Económico (Economic Direction),” a program on Canal N. In early 2013 he was elected executive director of the NGO “Soluciones Empresariales contra la Pobreza (Business Solutions against Poverty),” created two years ago by the two largest business associations in Peru: the “Confederación Nacional de Instituciones Empresariales Privadas (National Confederation of Private Business Institutions) (Confiep)” and the “Sociedad Nacional de Industrias (National Society of Industries) (SNI),” then managed by the businessmen Humberto Speziani and Pedro Olaechea Álvarez Calderón (Congressman for Kuczynski’s party for the period 2016-2021 and uncle of the current director of “El Comercio” Fernando Berkemeyer). In October 2013, he took over the newspaper Perú21. Between 2004 and 2005 he was Business Development manager of the construction company Grana & Montero, owned by José Graña Miró Quesada, one of the largest individual shareholders of “El Comercio”. He is also Alfonso Miró Quesada de la Fuente’s nephew-in-law; one of the principal owners of the newspaper. He considers himself liberal. He appears in the top 10 of the written press sector, in the annual survey of power in Peru (2016), prepared by “Semana Económica (Economy Week)”.
Presenter of the Program La Hora N. Peruvian antropologist. Since 2000 he has conducted La Hora N, a topical program based on political and economical issues. Her stories in a column of El Comercio show a clear rightist position. He is the director of an association named Lampadia, which spread news through the internet about business investment. It is on the top place of the TV sector and on the top 10 list of analysts in the annual survey about the power in Peru (El Poder en el Perú) (2016), published by Semana Económica.
Chairman and shareholder of Prensmart. Peruvian economist born in Lima in 1955. After the fall of Alberto Fujimori's regime, Congress asked the Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate Luis Agois for being part of Vladimiro Montesinos’ criminal organization, resorting to the deactivated Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Service) (SIN), and selling the editorial line of his media organizations in exchange for money in order to promote the third re-election of Fujimori. Faced with a government inquiry, Agois Banchero admitted to visiting the SIN, but that he refused to receive money from the former presidential candidate. The anti-corruption prosecutor investigated the case because of the declarations made by former representatives of Montesinos, but the case was archived in 2004. Since then, the process has been forgotten. In 2013, Agois Banchero was one of the shareholders who participated in the controversial process of selling his shares in Epensa to “El Comercio”. In November of the same year, a group of eight journalists reported Agois, his mother, his brothers and “El Comercio” for violating freedom of expression and information laws due to the aforementioned commercial operation.
Further Information
Meta Data
Difficulty in identifying all the shareholders of the El Comercio Group and little information related to semented revenues by subsidiaries.
Sources
Página web corporativa del Grupo El Comercio
Estados financieros del Grupo El Comercio entregados a la Superintendencia de Mercado de Valores el 2016
http://www.smv.gob.pe/ConsultasP8/temp/Empresa%20Editora%20El%20Comercio%20SA%20consolidado.pdf
Perú Top Publications 2016
Sociedad de Empresas Periodísticas del Perú (SEPP)
Graña & Montero (G&M
Superintendencia Nacional de Administración Tributaria (Sunat)
López Martínez, Héctor. Historia de El Comercio, 1989
