German Prosieben is holding a board meeting on the Atlantic gross transactions, sources say
(Reuters) – The Procivensat Supervisory Board will meet on Sunday to discuss transactions that could potentially pass the Atlantic Atlantic, a US private equity company, to a German broadcaster, to minority stakes.
General Atlantic is a co-investment in Prosieben’s Internet unit. Price comparison website Verivox, Perfume E Retail Flaconi, and online dating platform ParshietMeet Group – TV Group is about to sell.
Prosieben earlier this month was working on an agreement to buy US minority stakes with ParshipMeet and Nucom Group, and said Holding Company Housing Verivox and Flaconi were using mandatory convertible bonds to issue or perhaps Treasury shares as payments.
This agreement will become the sole owner of Prosiebensat.1 digital assets and remove any obstacles to the proposed sales of Verivox and Flaconi.
Prosieben is considering options that must avoid shareholder votes when issuing the necessary shares for mandatory convertible bonds, one source said.
You can do that through “accidental” capital growth. This is an option that allows the company to issue up to 23.3 million shares, or 10% of its share capital, and only approves approval from the Supervisory Board.
Prosieben and the Atlantic General declined to comment.
The “contingent capital” option dilutes the interests of existing shareholders of Prosieben, including top investor MFE-MediaForeurope, which holds nearly 30% of Prosieben.
The MFE, dominated by the Italian Berlusconi family, secured a 3.4 billion euro funding package and funded the potential acquisition of Prosieben.
MFE will use a portion of its debt package to refinance 2.1 billion euros in total debt that must be repaid if the MFE exceeds 50% of its voting shares. The “change of management” clause in a debt agreement gives Prosieben’s creditors the option to do so.
Prosieben’s market capitalization was 1.4 billion euros at Friday’s price.
(Reporting by Elvira Polina in Milan; Additional reporting by Christophe Statz in Frankfurt; Editing by Valentina Za and Bernadette Baum)