Ahead of ProSiebenSat.1's Annual General Meeting, the major Italian shareholder MediaForEurope (MFE) is increasing the pressure on the German television group.

MFE boss Pier Silvio Berlusconi once again demanded that the Bavarians return to their core business of TV and entertainment and shed ballast from their investment portfolio by selling companies. "The first step should be to spin off the dating and e-commerce activities in order to create added value," the manager told the newspaper "Corriere della Sera". The son of former Italian head of government Silvio Berlusconi had already called on ProSiebenSat.1's top management to take action in the past.

ProSiebenSat.1 declined to comment on this on Monday. Recently, CFO Martin Mildner admitted during the presentation of the 2023 financial statements that the company was exploring the possibility of disposing of some assets. Mildner mentioned the online cosmetics subsidiary Flaconi. Everything depends on the market environment. It also remains to be seen whether there will be income from sales this year or not until 2025. ProSiebenSat.1 manager Mildner said that 2024 would probably still be too early for an IPO of the dating division ParshipMeet Group. The comparison portal Verivox is also considered a target for sale in the industry.

MFE has been on board at ProSiebenSat.1 since May 2019 and has steadily increased its stake to around 29%. At 30 percent, the Italians would have to make a takeover bid. When asked whether MFE was planning such an offer, Berlusconi signaled that this would only be possible if ProSieben spun off its non-core activities. "A takeover bid that also extends to companies about which we know little? And which have little to do with our core business?" said Berlusconi in the interview, without being more specific. Meanwhile, MFE advertising sales in Italy and Spain had increased by five percent in the first three months of the year. MFE shares were up around five percent in the afternoon.

ProSiebenSat.1 also announced the departure of board member Christine Scheffler at the end of the month. After more than five years with the Group, she had asked the Supervisory Board to terminate her contract "due to differing positions on the next steps in the company's positioning". Among other things, she is responsible for human resources and recently had to manage the reduction of more than 400 full-time jobs. According to the Group, Markus Breitenecker (55) is a new member of the Executive Board. As Chief Operating Officer (COO), the head of the Austrian subsidiary ProSiebenSat.1 PULS4 will be responsible for the Entertainment division together with CEO Bert Habets as of April 1. Breitenecker will take care of streaming and digital platforms and be responsible for business in Switzerland and Austria. This means that no one who was already on board when Habets started in November 2022 will remain on the Management Board.

(Report by Elvira Pollina, Philipp Krach and Klaus Lauer, edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).