Constantin Medien: Bernhard Burgener prepares takeover bid
Der neue FC-Basel-Präsident Bernhard Burgener hat Grosses vor beim Unterhaltungskonzern Constantin Medien: Mit seiner Firma Highlight Event & Entertainment (HLEE) schickt er sich an, die Stimmenmehrheit zurückzuerobern, wie Recherchen der Handelszeitung zeigen.
Next week, a capital increase is to be decided first, which will result in HLEE increasing its share in Constantin to just under 30 percent. That alone, Burgener hopes, will make him once again the majority procurer he once was. "We're not giving up," he says.
But the Basel-based company is already planning further: after the capital increase, it wants to prepare a general takeover offer, according to good sources. This is to be financed with equity from HLEE's core shareholders and additional debt capital. Burgener is not commenting on these plans at present.
Burgener can count on a well-known partner for his project: Carl Elsener's Victorinox cutlery company. It initially provided HLEE with a loan and is now converting half of it into a 15 percent stake, according to an analysis of notifications Burgener had to make to the Swiss stock exchange. Elsener has invested money in a Burgener project before. When the latter bought the South Tyrolean Lechner Marmor, Victorinox was the largest investor alongside him. The business relationship with Elsener came about through Alfred Bühler, says Burgener. Bühler runs the private country club Widenmoos near Reitnau AG.
Constantin Medien is an internationally operating media company based in Ismaning near Munich. The Group is focused on the Sports Segment and, through its holding in the listed Swiss media company Highlight Communications, on the Segments Film as well as Sports- and Event-Marketing. (pd/hae)
