Mediaset want to move to Holland. The idea, already considered in the past, was shelved last year together with the MediaForEurope operation. Now, however, the Board of Directors has decided to try again, unanimously resolving to submit to the shareholders "the proposal for move the registered office of the company to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to be achieved through the adoption by the company of the legal form of a naamloze vennootschap governed by Dutch law, and the adoption of a new statute in accordance with Dutch law".
To decide on this point, the shareholders will meet in assembly on 23 June.
Even in the event of the green light for the transfer, the Board of Directors still specifies, Mediaset shares will remain listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and "the actual headquarters will also remain in Italy, as well as tax residency of society".
If the move is approved, the opposing shareholders will be able to exercise the right of withdrawal at the price of 2,181 euro per share.
Marco Giordani, CFO of Mediaset, explains that the move to the Netherlands, through the corporate transformation of the parent company, aims to create "a neutral platform" in a market that is "more European than Italy", which acts as basis for the creation of a pan-European group. The objective of the operation is "to create a neutral entity that can be used as a vehicle to expand the perimeter of the group to other European countries and pursue opportunities for external growth".
Basically, by bringing its registered office to the Netherlands, Mediaset – already the leader in Spain – expects to have an easier life in its projects on the German Prosiebensat (of which it acquired 15% of the capital and has derivatives to rise to 24,9%) and also with the French M6, on which a competitive auction is in progress.
Giordani also said he did not rule out “that the merger with Mediaset Espana can be realized in the future, because industrially it makes sense”; the group, however, wants to "avoid any kind of dispute and go to Holland in the most ordinary way possible". The Mfe operation which also involved Spain, in fact, had given rise to a legal dispute.
The Board has also proposed the abrogation of the increased vote: the decision was taken unanimously, "in the interest of the company, in order to avoid further disputes and hopefully re-establish a constructive dialogue with all the shareholders", i.e. Vivendi (second shareholder with 28,8% of Alfa after the Fininvest dei Berlusconi), who had challenged the resolution of the 2019 assembly. The assembly on the increased vote will be held on 27 June.
For The bills, Mediaset closed 2020 with a Net income equal to 139,3 million euros, down compared to 190,3 million in 2019. revenues, down by about 10%, to 2,36 billion euros.
Solo in Italy, turnover reached 1,8 billion, from 1,98 billion in 2019, with a 10,5% contraction in gross advertising revenue, against an overall 14,6% drop in Italian advertising investments.
I Costs fell by 7%, to 1,762 billion euros, allowing the group to catch up an operating result of 269,7 million euros, which remains significantly lower than the 354,6 million of the pre-Covid year.
THEdebt consolidated net financial position, excluding the payables deriving from the acquisition of the stake in ProsiebenSat.1Media and the financial liabilities accounted for in accordance with IFRS 16, decreased to 473,6 million euros, from 768,8 million euros at 31 December 2019.
in first three months of 2021, the television group recorded an acceleration in advertising revenues in Italy (+6,1%) which bodes well for the April-June quarter.
