German pay-TV company Premiere World – whose gargantuan losses helped trigger the collapse of media empire Kirch Gruppe – is to be taken over by a private equity firm.
Permira has agreed to buy a controlling stake (said to be 70%) for cash, with creditor banks taking a 20% holding and the remaining 10% distributed among three senior managers. The deal is expected to be completed early in 2003.
“We are delighted by this breakthrough because it means we can now concentrate 100% on running Premiere,” declared the pay-TV group’s ceo Georg Kofler, who has overseen a radical restructuring of the firm since it filed for insolvency in May.
Data sourced from: Financial Times; additional content by WARC staff
