EM.Sport Media AG, Ismaning/Munich, has informed Highlight Communications AG that it today acquired a further 5.33 million shares of Highlight Communications. The seller of the shares is KF 15 GmbH & Co. KG in Munich. This increases the stake held by EM.Sport Media in Highlight Communications by 11.3 percent from 26.3 percent to 37.6 percent. EM.Sport Media intends to continue building its shareholding in Highlight Communications.
Highlight Communications has been informed that, in return for the purchased shares, EM.Sport Media is paying KF 15 34.9 million Euro in cash plus 4.346 million shares in EM.Sport Media AG from treasury-held stock. Based on the Xetra closing share price on March 28, 2008 (2.83 Euro), this equates to a transaction price of 8.85 Euro per Highlight Communications share.
The transaction remains subject to the approval of the German and Austrian antitrust authorities and must be reported to the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting (BLM) and the Commission on Concentration in the Media (KEK).
In order to intensify and accelerate the unification of the two companies, changes are to be made to the controlling bodies of the media houses. Bernhard Burgener, current President (Chairman) of the Board of Directors of Highlight Communications, shall take over the position of CEO of EM.Sport Media AG on September 1, 2008 as the successor of Werner E. Klatten. At the next Annual General Meet-ing of EM.Sport Media AG, Klatten, who has been CEO of EM.Sport Media AG since 2001, shall be nominated for election to the Company’s Supervisory Board as of September 1, 2008.
Furthermore, at the Annual General Meeting of Highlight Communications AG on May 30, 2008, Werner E. Klatten shall be nominated for election to the Company’s Board of Directors, where he shall take over the position of President (Chairman) from Mr Burgener. It is planned that Mr Burgener in future retain the position of “Delegierter” (CEO) of Highlight Communications’ Board of Directors. These moves thus guarantee a unified and efficient management structure for the purposes of bringing together the two media houses.
For questions, please contact:
HIGHLIGHT COMMUNICATIONS AG
Martin Wagner
Vizepräsident des Verwaltungsrates
CH-4133 Pratteln BL
Telefon: 0041 61 816 96 91 / 0041 79 597 85 14
e-mail: martin.wagner@hlcom.ch
