Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media group, revealed Friday it plans to sell its wholly owned subsidiary BMG Music Publishing - not to be confused with Sony BMG in which the German giant holds a 50% stake.
The sale is intended to raise funds for the circa €4.5 billion ($5.73bn; £3.09bn) repurchase of the stake in held by Group Bruxelles Lambert in the Mohn family-controlled media titan [WAMN: 24-May-06].
Bertelsmann will commence recovery of the GBL stake in July, almost five years to the day since it swapped the holding in return for GBL's interest in Europe's largest commercial broadcaster RTL Group - in which Bertelsmann now owns 89.8% of the publicly-quoted stock.
RTL, the jewel in the Mohn family's crown, operates TV and radio stations in eleven different European nations.
Data sourced from Financial Times Online; additional content by WARC staff
