MFE wants control of ProSiebenSat.1
December 20, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Berlusconi family-controlled MediaForEurope (MFE) is looking to take majority control of German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1. MFE filed its formal notification at Austria’s Federal Competition Authority (Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde) on December 13th. The filing talks about the “acquisition of de facto sole control” of the German media business.
Investment bank Exane/BNPP suggests this could be a difficult move for MFE.
The bank says: “This filing is technical in nature and does not represent a new development, with MFE still holding a 29.9 per cent stake. Bedsides [we] continue to believe that the Bavarian Media law makes a an actual full takeover difficult. As a reminder, in April a new law in to force which grants Bavaria the veto right if a company plans to raise its stake in a private broadcasting company to more than 25 per cent if this is viewed as restricting information diversity. This was effectively in response to the MFE stake increase and [we] note that Media Law in Germany is conducted on a Laender by Laender basis and not on a Federal basis.”