The Italian major shareholder MFE is currently not planning a takeover of ProSiebenSat.1.

MFE CFO Marco Giordani said on Thursday that the company is not interested in this at present. The German television group is a long-term investment and the focus is on the performance of ProSiebenSat.1. He is concerned about the level of debt of the Bavarian company, said Giordani and once again appealed to the management of ProSiebenSat.1 to act quickly to avoid further losses for shareholders. MFE is pushing for the sale of shareholdings, for example.

The holding company MFE-MediaForEurope, controlled by the Berlusconi family, is in favor of preparing a spin-off of the dating and e-commerce business from the core entertainment business. This would make it more attractive for MFE to take over ProSiebenSat.1. According to documents seen by Reuters, MFE held talks at the end of last year and the beginning of 2024 with lenders who would be interested in financing a takeover of ProSieben and would also support this. The aim was to finance a potential takeover bid for up to around four billion euros, Reuters had learned from people familiar with the matter and from documents. MFE joined ProSieben in 2019 and holds almost 30 percent. The remaining 70 percent is currently worth around EUR 1.2 billion.

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