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The media company founded by Silvio Berlusconi has hit a stumbling block in its bid for control of German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 after Czech investment firm PPF Group made a rival offer and sought to boost its influence.
MediaForEurope, which is majority owned by the family of the late Italian prime minister and is ProSieben’s largest shareholder, in March made a cash-and-stock offer of about €5.7 a share to increase its stake in the Munich-based news and entertainment group to as much as 100 per cent.
That offer, which opened to shareholders last week and is valid until early June, is part of a long-standing drive by Berlusconi’s son and MFE chief executive, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, to build a pan-European media empire.
But on Monday, PPF — which was founded by late Czech businessman Petr Kellner and owns just under 13 per cent of ProSieben — said it would make an all-cash offer of €7 a share. It described its offer as more “compelling” than MFE’s, which was at the lowest possible level allowed by regulators.
PPF insisted it was not intending to make a takeover bid of ProSieben, Germany’s second-largest private broadcaster in terms of audience share.
If accepted, the transaction would take its shareholding to 29.99 per cent — just below the 30 per cent threshold at which German regulations would require it to make an offer to buy out the remaining shareholders.
Instead, the Czech group said it wanted to increase its representation on ProSieben’s supervisory board and bolster its support for the embattled broadcaster’s management team, led by chief executive Bert Habets, which has been under fire from MFE.
More than doubling its stake in ProSieben, which last week announced 400 job cuts as part of a cost-cutting drive, would put the PPF’s influence over the broadcaster and its supervisory board almost on a par with MFE, whose shareholding stands at just over 30 per cent.
It would give PPF a blocking minority, setting the stage for corporate battles with MFE over appointments and dismissals of board members and executives, as well as financial decisions.
Didier Stoessel, PPF’s chief investment officer, said: “Despite ProSiebenSat.1’s challenges and the turbulent market environment, I believe that the ProSiebenSat.1 management has the right strategy in place, which we fully support.”
He said it was important for ProSieben to sell off non-core assets — such as the online beauty retailer Flaconi and the dating site Parship — “at the right valuation”. In contrast, MFE has sought to force the company to sell the assets as quickly as possible.
He added: “With a stronger shareholding and proportionate Supervisory Board representation, we will be in a position to more actively support the ProSiebenSat.1 management with our experience, namely in the digital revitalisation of linear TV business models.”
MFE said last week that it did not expect to achieve a majority stake in ProSieben, but would rather evaluate the potential for co-operation between the German business and its Italian and Spanish channels.
MFE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
