Mfe-Media for Europe would have given the mandate to Unicredit to lead a pool of banks to arrange a €3,4 billion financing that will be used in late 2025 for a Takeover bid on ProSiebenSat1 aimed at delisting. He writes it The messenger, recalling that Mfe already holds 29,9% of the German group's capital.
The Italian television group's ambitions for the German broadcaster are nothing new. Mfe began buying shares of the Teutonic company in 2019, reaching 29,99% of the capital, just shy of the obligation to launch a total takeover bid, which would be triggered with a stake exceeding 30%.
For some time now, according to rumors, Mfe has been toying with the idea of creating a pan-European television platform in order to challenge the dominance of Netflix and Facebook. Last April 15, Reuters had revealed that the company controlled by the Berlusconi family had held discussions in the previous months with several banks, including Unicredit itself, to finance a potential offer for the German broadcaster. Today Il Messaggero confirms this news. No comment from Mfe.
The other banks potentially involved in the transaction are Banco Bpm, Bper Banca, Bnp Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, the newspaper said, adding that they would each provide about 567 million euros.
Analysts Equity they note that the financing reported by the Messaggero "would highlight the possibility of making an offer on Prosieben even without the use of Mfe shares". The experts, however, think that Mfe will move with caution and will intensify the pressure on Prosieben's management to accelerate the sale of non-core assets. They also invite attention to the trend of debt after a possible acquisition, to be compared with the synergies produced by the integration of the two companies. Thus they prefer to advise caution ('Hold') on both category A (price target at 3,9 euros) and B (4,8 euros) Mfes.
Stock market reaction
The news immediately attracted the attention of investors, with the Prosiebensat1 share rising sharply (+5,4% to 4,96 euros) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, while MfeA and MfeB shares rose by more than 2%.
