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With the new positioning of the board of directors there is a changed strategic focus, the company said. The ProSiebenSat.1 Group will once again focus its operational business more on the entertainment sector in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The focus here is on local and live formats, also in close cooperation with Red Arrow Studios and Studio71.
Among other things, the digital range is to be expanded further via the Joyn streaming platform. NuCom remains a synergistically important pillar of the group. The existing investments, which benefit from advertising on the entertainment platforms, will be further developed for value and will be taxed in the course of an active portfolio policy in due course.
ProSiebenSat.1 share gains
The shares increased their profits to almost 11 percent at the top, but they were initially denied the jump above EUR 7.50. They had reached an intermediate high above this mark on Wednesday, but they could not exceed it now. Most recently, the plus was still 8.4 percent to 7.31 euros. At the same time, the MDAX was down almost 3 percent. After the recent significant recovery from the corona virus crash, profit taking was announced on the overall market.
The news that received the most attention was that the previous CEO Max Conze left the media group with immediate effect. CFO Rainer Beaujean takes over the position of CEO, while Christine Scheffler and Wolfgang Link, two managers from our own ranks, complete the board. One dealer rated this positively given Conze’s lack of success in an admittedly difficult market environment.
“Conze could not continue to sharpen the corporate structures to meet the challenges,” said the Brsian. He pointed out that the shares fell by about three quarters during the term of the former CEO. Conze succeeded the long-time boss Thomas Ebeling on June 1, 2018, at that time the papers were still trading for over 25 euros. In the low, they recently cost only EUR 5.72 in the wake of the virus crisis.
The Brazilian now sees the potential for a stronger influence from large groups such as the Italian competitor Mediaset, which has only recently increased its stake to a good 20 percent. It had already been assumed on the market that the Italians were pushing for a change at the top. The Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky, who has been involved in the media group since October, could also exert influence.
Strategically, the group also announced that the operational business will again focus more on the entertainment sector in the German-speaking region. The focus here is on live and local formats. Among other things, the digital range should be expanded further via the streaming platform Joyn. Parts of the NuCom e-commerce business are meanwhile to be taxed in due course.
UBS analyst Richard Eary finds this decision out of date in the current market situation. The decisive factor now will be whether the new management will be able to free up values and whether it can strengthen its entertainment segment over time as planned.
UNTERFHRING (Dow Jones / dpa-AFX)
