[eccr] Bertelsmann abandons efforts to take RTL private

Title: Bertelsmann abandons efforts to take RTL private

Bertelsmann abandons efforts to take RTL private 
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Bertelsmann, the German media group, on Tuesday said it had abandoned
plans to buy the shares it does not own in RTL, Europe's largest
television broadcaster, after its planned offer ran into regulatory
obstacles. The group had hoped to consolidate its holding in
publicly-listed RTL by buying out all remaining shareholders ahead of
its own initial public offering in 2004 or 2005. But plans to launch a
E44-per-share offer for RTL's free float raised regulatory issues and
opposition from Luxembourg-based shareholders who are suing Bertelsmann
in relation to a previous deal. 

The principle of the offer was agreed on the request of Pearson, owner
of the Financial Times, after it sold its 22 per cent stake in RTL to
Bertelsmann last December, taking the German group's stake to 89 per
cent. Bertelsmann insiders said the capital market regulator in one of
the three countries where RTL is listed had insisted the offer should
include a step-up clause in case the Luxembourg shareholders won their
lawsuit. Bertelsmann said it had bought 785,000 RTL shares at E44 each
since December 24, taking its stake in the broadcaster from 89 to 90.2
per cent, and was reserving the right to further increase its stake. 

"Bertelsmann did not want to overpay, which is quite healthy," one
Frankfurt-based analyst said. "And with less than 10 per cent, the
public shareholders do not even have a blocking minority." RTL will now
have to bear the cost of maintaining its listings in Luxembourg, London,
and Brussels - which analysts say could represent several million euros
per year - but people close to Bertelsmann said it could probably do
without the London listing. "Neither us nor RTL has yet made a decision
on the London listing, which is the least liquid of the three," a
Bertelsmann spokesman said. 



Source: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3GPYOHZYC&live=true&tagid=ZZZLZDL1B0C - Financial Times