Munich, September 7, 2001. Management representatives of KirchHolding GmbH & Co. KG and KirchMedia GmbH & Co. KGaA and the Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG yesterday reached an agreement in principle to merge ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG into KirchMedia.
After the merger, KirchMedia will be organized as a stock corporation under German law [Aktienge-sellschaft] and its shares will be listed on the stock exchange. The shares of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG will be subsumed in the new company’s stock.
The merger is still subject to the approval of the supervisory bodies of both companies and must also be notified to the competent media authorities. The merger should be completed by the end of June 2002. Dr. Dieter Hahn will serve as Chairman of the new company’s Executive Board. Urs Rohner, until now the Chairman of the Executive Board of ProSieben-Sat.1 Media AG, will serve on the new company’s board as director responsible for television operations. Implementation of the merger plan will begin immediately.
Dr. Dieter Hahn: ‘The new organizational structures created by the merger will generate substantial synergy effects for the KirchGruppe and opti-mize value-added creation across its far-ranging operations. We decided to merge our companies and take steps to have the restructured KirchMedia listed on the stock exchange in order to quickly and offensively confront the intensifying competition and effectively respond to the technological and programming-related market developments as well as to the increasingly difficult economic environment. We are convinced that investors will take a very strong interest in this first-time opportunity to invest in a vertically integrated media company which is active in all stages of the audiovisual industry.’
Following its reorganization into the three companies KirchMedia, KirchPayTV and KirchBeteiligung under the roof of a strategic management holding company, the merger and the listing of KirchMedia is the next logical step in the business development of the KirchGruppe. The merger will streamline corporate organizational structures and bolster the finan-cial strength of the new company, making it even more competitive and paving the way for sustained future growth.
The KirchMedia boasts an outstanding programme library with more than 63,000 hours of fiction programming, plus extensive rights to popular sports events. Its free-TV brands generate approximately 45% of the total advertising revenues of the German TV market. KirchGruppe also encompasses one of the world’s biggest international film rights trading enterprises, as well as leading production companies and technical film service centers.
Further information on KirchHolding can be accessed at www.kirchgruppe.de.
For questions kindly contact:
KirchHolding GmbH & Co. KG
Hartmut Schultz
Corporate Spokesman
Telephone: +49 (0)89 9956-2325
hartmut.schultz@kirchgruppe.de