According to its Czech major shareholder PPF, the TV group ProSiebenSat.1 should sell activities outside its core business.

The Bavarian media company should sell e-commerce assets and its dating division, said PPF CEO Jiri Smejc on Tuesday in Prague. In total, "potentially more than one billion euros" could come in from several sales. The company needs to reposition itself and focus on content. "The company was not optimally managed for a long time," emphasized Smejc. No comment was initially available from ProSiebenSat.1.

As the second largest shareholder, PPF holds around 15 percent of ProSiebenSat.1 and, according to Smejc, could possibly increase its stake. "That depends on the development of the share price and on how the management succeeds in restructuring the company."

The MFE holding company of the Italian Berlusconi family is the largest shareholder and holds just under 30 percent of the Bavarian company. At the Annual General Meeting at the end of April, MFE-MediaForEurope's motion that ProSiebenSat.1 should prepare a spin-off of all non-core activities fell just short of the necessary three-quarters majority. It was reported in the industry that MFE and PPF had both voted in favor of the motion and thus against the Executive Board and Supervisory Board of ProSiebenSat.1.

Smejc said that PPF was acting completely independently of MFE and did not share all of the Italians' positions. "When it comes to splitting up the company, we think these assets should be sold," said the PPF boss. "Maybe unlike the shareholders of MFE, we don't feel that this has to be done in a panic so that it can be sold next month." But this needs to be properly prepared, he added.

PPF CEO Smejc welcomed the fact that ProSieben had started to cut costs. The Group must invest more in content, also in the subscription business. ProSiebenSat.1 had missed the boat here. "The company's potential is much greater than the figures show today," said the manager. On Tuesday, ProSiebenSat.1 confirmed the preliminary quarterly figures from mid-April and the forecast for 2024.

PPF is the owner of the television company CME, which has stations in six Central and Eastern European countries with 49 million viewers. The holding belongs to the family of the late billionaire Petr Kellner.

(Report by Jan Lopatka, written by Klaus Lauer. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)