Italy's MFE sweetens bid for Germany's ProSieben
MILAN (Reuters) -MFE-MediaForEurope (MFE), the TV group controlled by Italy's Berlusconi family, said on Monday it had improved its offer for German peer ProSiebenSat.1.
MFE raised its offer to 1.3 MFE A shares from an initial 0.4 MFE A shares while leaving the cash component unchanged at 4.48 euros per share, the company said in a statement.
The decision was made "not because the initial bid was inadequate, but because, as leading shareholders, we have supported this industrial project for years," MFE chief Executive Pier Silvio Berlusconi said in a separate statement.
He added the Italian group is not seeking total control of ProSieben.
MFE owns around 30% of the German company and made a cash-and-share bid for it in March as part of its broader push to create a pan-European broadcaster.
The move triggered an all-cash counter-bid by ProSieben's second-largest investor PPF, which owns private TV stations across six Eastern European countries. ProSieben called that counter-bid financially "inadequate".
Germany's culture minister said on Saturday he had invited Italian media magnate Pier Silvio Berlusconi to a meeting to discuss the bid, adding the German firm's journalistic independence must be preserved.
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