MFE-MEDIAFOREUROPE (formerly Mediaset, which now trades with MFE A And MFE B) appreciate the effort announced publicly by ProSiebenSat.1 Media (P7S1) by sell Bottles and Verivox and encourages management to commit to further divestitures of other non-core business activities and to present a tangible long-term strategy for the separation of these additional non-core activities.
MFE is pleased to note that its efforts aimed at encouraging P7S1 management to refocus on its core business finally bearing fruit, we read in a note ahead of the meeting of the German company on April 30th. MFE holds approximately 30% of the capital of ProSiebenSat.
While there has always been alignment on the goal communicated by P7S1’s boards of directors and many of its shareholders, including MFE, to focus P7S1 on its core business, MFE and management appear to have different opinions on the urgency of action. “We are pleased that the management is now willing to change its attitude, to accelerate the pace and to finally act in the right direction – it is underlined – We are at the same time surprised that the idea of P7S1 is supposedly concerned that MFE aims to limit management’s margin for action and to block the sale of non-core assets with its proposal to analyze and prepare the spin-off of these assets”.
MFE has repeatedly underlined that it proposes to analyze and prepare a spin-off of P7S1’s non-core activities as a viable additional option and explicitly not as an exclusive alternative for separate the Entertainment business from non-core activities. The wording of MFE’s proposal clearly states that P7S1 management will not be prevented from pursuing other options to refocus on the core business, including sales efforts. In particular, according to the express wording of MFE’s request, from a legal point of view it is out of the question that P7S1 management can start selling individual non-core assets starting today.
“If the management of P7S1 fails to sell all assets relating to non-core activities by next year’s Annual General Meetingthe board of directors of P7S1 would only be required to submit documentation for a spin-off of the remainder of the assets that have not been sold – reads the document – Next year’s Annual General Meeting would then be able to decide freely whether it is appropriatefrom an economic point of view, spin off the remainder of the non-core assets still held by P7S1 or whether P7S1 should rather retain them and continue with its efforts to otherwise dispose of those assets.”
