Mexican media company Grupo Lauman, chaired by businessman Manuel Arroyo and owner of the telecommunications company Comtelsat and the newspaper El Financiero, confirmed on Friday, May 21st the acquisition of Fox Sports Mexico. However, according to the information reported by El Financiero, the transaction is required to be authorized by Mexican regulators.

The sale of Fox Sports Mexico was one of the requirements established by the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT), Mexican telecommunications regulator, to authorize the Disney-Fox merger, which took place in March 2019. Earlier this year, the Group was reported as one of those interested in acquiring Fox’s sports business in Mexico, although the confirmation came after the IFT decided not to grant The Walt Disney Company an additional term for the sale, in early May.

Although El Financiero informed that more details of the operation will be reported in the coming days, no details were given about the value of the transaction. Despite this, the Mexican website El CEO, quoting sources close to the negotiation, reported that the sale agreement would be valued at ‘more than USD 300 million’. Up to now, no referents from Fox Sports Mexico and Grupo Lauman have expressed themselves on the initiative.

Mexican regulator’s decision to order Disney the sale of Fox’s sports business in Mexico came after the results of an analysis that  reported that Fox Sports (then owned by 21st Century Fox) and ESPN (Disney), concentrated a high percentage of the sports content on pay TV. Another requirement to authorize the merger between Disney and Fox was the sale of the Fox Sports business in Brazil by CADE, although, in this case, the merger took place without the need for the sale.