Sale of Publicitas leads to legal repercussions
The German investment company Aurelius is suing Swisscom. The background is a dispute over the sale of Publicitas.
In June 2014, Aurelius had acquired Publicitas from its parent company Publigroupe (Werbewoche.ch reported). Then, at the beginning of 2015, Publicitas lost an important customer: The NZZ had decided to carry out its advertising sales on its own from then on (Werbewoche.ch reported). Aurelius, the new owner of Publicitas, is apparently still upset about this. It complains that it was not sufficiently informed about the imminent loss of NZZ as a customer during the takeover.
Lawsuits filed against Swisscom
The accusation is directed at Swisscom. This is because the telecoms group took over the parent company Publigroupe in September 2014, shortly after the Publicitas subsidiary was bought by Aurelius. The case must now be dealt with by the Zurich Commercial Court. Swisscom confirmed to news agency SDA on Wednesday a report in the newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft. According to the report, Aurelius has filed several lawsuits against Swisscom. In addition to the alleged lack of information in the case of NZZ, it is also about the different opinion regarding valuations of individual balance sheet items. Apparently, Aurelius is demanding more in accounting terms than was agreed before the purchase.
Swisscom also demands money
For its part, Swisscom is also making claims against Aurelius. This relates to the bankruptcy of the logistics service provider Xentive. Xentive, in which Publicitas held a minority stake, was also the subject of the transaction to Aurelius in 2014. According to Finanz und Wirtschaft, the financial damage of the bankruptcy was not borne by Aurelius at the time, but by Publigroupe, and thus indirectly by its new owner Swisscom. Publigroupe had waived claims against Xentive and written off the money, while Aurelius had taken over a debt-free balance sheet.
With reference to the ongoing proceedings, Swisscom did not want to comment further to SDA. Aurelius is also keeping a low profile. On request, it said that it does not comment on ongoing proceedings. (SDA)
