Chile president-elect will cede TV network to foundation

Santiago, Feb 8 (EFE).- President-elect Sebastian Piñera will transfer his 100 percent stake in Chilevision television to a non-profit foundation, one of the magnate's advisers, Cristian Larroulet, said Monday.

Piñera, estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth roughly $2 billion, has owned the much-watched network since 2005.

The rightist politician promised during the electoral campaign to divest himself of the stake he has in different companies in case they might represent a possible conflict of interest with the office of president, a post he will assume on March 11.

Last Friday a shareholders' meeting at Axxion, the company through which Piñera controls 19.03 percent of LAN Airlines, decided to sell those shares.

"The president-elect has done exactly with what he said he would do during the electoral campaign, in the sense that he was going to divest himself of his shares in LAN and in all his companies," Larroulet told Radio Cooperativa on Monday.

"And in the case of Chilevision, he was going to hand over those shares and property to a non-profit organization that will make sure the channel represents all Chilean society without discrimination," he said.

Larroulet is one of the names being considered as the possible future Cabinet minister for Piñera, who was to announce Monday the composition of his government to the chairmen of National Renovation, Carlos Larrain, and of the Independent Democratic Union, Juan Antonio Coloma, the main parties making up the rightist Coalition for Change.

The president-elect will make those appointments public on Tuesday at a ceremony in Santiago's National Historical Museum.