FRANKFURT (Reuters) - News Corp may ask to be exempted from making a compulsory takeover offer for German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere should it pass the 30 percent shareholding threshold, a German magazine reported.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp -- which currently holds 25.01 percent in Premiere -- is considering supporting a possible capital increase of Premiere early next year, a move that would boost its stake to above 30 percent, magazine Der Spiegel said.
This would legally oblige News Corp to make a takeover offer to all of Premiere's shareholders.
German financial watchdog BaFin can make an exception to the regulation given the takeover target is a restructuring case and the bidder does not want to participate in the restructuring due to the compulsory takeover offer, Der Spiegel added.
Premiere declined to comment on the report. News Corp also declined to comment.
Premiere -- which is conducting a strategic review -- reported a third-quarter net loss of 89 million euros ($112.9 million) in November and said it expects to conclude talks with banks on debt restructuring by the end of the year.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Jens Hack and Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Ron Askew)
Publié le 06 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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