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Europe
2Mandate table329 line up for DTT in Finland3PSG sold by Canal Plus3No deadline yet for Emap sale4Editis buys book distributor5Bertelsmann banks appointed5Global round up of telco IPTV 6Unity bond struggle through6GreenTV 7Stockbyte snapped up7Setanta out of TV3 race9Mediaset, TI deny marriage9Telegraaf readies for Sky Radio102Waytraffic plans AIM listing10Bloomberg to get brainpower boost10Orkla ‘gradually moving’10TPI runners down to two11Prisa lining up E1.5bn facility 11Codere launches bond11Saudi Research launches IPO12Games software funded12Veronis wraps Granada Learning12Ten Alps buys magazine publisher13Endemol for Millionaire format?13GMG keeps its own counsel14Twenty buys Dataforce14ScreenFX plans capital raising14US outdoor advertisers to retrench?
East Europe
15Six DTT licencesin Czech Rep15Springer starts second newspaper15Kommersant: IPO or sale?16Five TV licences in Serbia
Asia
16Austar to refinance17Warburg Pincus tries print media17Sahara One to raise US$50m17Baby TV launched17Thomson partners for legal media18Yahoo denies Korean sale18UBC raises funds
Americas
18Televisa hires Allen & Co.18Bonds prove popular for Viacom19DeMarseCo launched19VC funding league table20Company profile: Cellcast preps for
Decision looms at VNU
VNU is to clear all other items from the agenda when shareholders meet next week to discuss the E28.75 a share offer currently on the table from privateequity consortium Valcon. If rebel shareholder Knight Vinke is successful inpreventing Valcon getting the 95% approval it needs then, leaderless, VNUshares could easily fall back to their pre-offer level of around E23. Privateequity has been frustrated in recent weeks by rising shareholder expectationseven as more and more funds are flowing into the asset class: could it betempted to loosen its purse strings?
The rise of Mecom
Not to be put off by its failure to buy the Rhones Alpes papers from Socpresseearlier this year, David Montgomery’s investment vehicle Mecom last week emerged victorious from the auction to buy Limburg Newspaper Group fromDe Telegraaf. The deal marks the first time Mecom has managed to acquire anewspaper business on its own and as such represents a shift in the firm’sinvestment strategy. While some bankers have questioned whether the E200mMecom is paying for the Limburg papers was too high, sources there say theunderlying Limburg business, and the quality of its management, make for anexcellent long term investment.
German TV under scrutiny
Uncertainty is widespread among TV platforms in Germany. WithoutBundesliga rights and unwilling to try out a wholesale model as opposed to itscurrent retail one, satellite pay TV platform Premiere faces an uncertain futurecome September, when rival Unity Media starts broadcasting football throughits own distribution channels.Meanwhile, ProSiebenSat.1 finds itself under the microscope following com-ments by a NBC Universal executive that it would make addition to its inter-national portfolio. Bankers say no approach is likely in the short term, butHaim Saban will be all too aware of the dangers online advertising poses totraditional linear broadcasters in the long run.
Grey dollar offers growth potential
Desperate to find growth markets, some publishers are looking to profit fromthe biggest demographic shift in developed economies: the rapid greying of thepopulation. Bertelsmann’s Direct Group has plans to turn its successful musicand book clubs, which boast 35 million members globally, into a social net- work for older people. New economy visionaries agree: US-based Jeff Taylor,founder of job site Monster Worldwide, has a startup in stealth mode calledEons Inc, which targets those in the 50+ age group with news, games andentertainment. Funding comes from Taylor, Monster and VCs GeneralCatalyst Partners, Sequioa and others.
Look out for league tables
Whilst you’re all hopefully enjoying a well-earned Easter break, the MediaFinance team will be putting the finishing touches to our leagues tables for2005. Honours will be awarded to those at the top of their game for mediabond issuance, public equity placement, loan arranging and M&A advisory over the last Calendar year.
Contents
Issue 94
April 13 2006
www.mediafinance.com
What’s up?
L
ARGE
M&A D
EALS INTHE PIPELINE
CompanyEventAdviser / arranger3iChorion bid (UK)UBSAll3MediaIPO/sale (UK)UBSAlpinvest et alVNU bid (NL)ABN AMRO, Citigroup, JPMorgan, DeutscheCanwestsale of TV3 stake (Ire)Hawkpoint PartnersCeladorsale of
Millionaire
TV propertyLongAcreChorionsale processRothschildCTC MediaIPODeutsche Bank UFG, Morgan Stanley EMAPsale of French assetsCitigroup, BNP ParibasGuardian Media Groupstrategic review (UK)Merrill LynchLatitudesale (UK)LongAcreLion Capitalsale of Glass’s (UK)JP MorganMagixIPODKW Maidensale (UK)RothschildMergermarket Groupstrategic review (UK)Hawkpoint PartnersOrkla Mediasale (Nor)Deutsche Bank SDUsale (NL)Fortis Telefonicasale of TPI (Sp)BNP Paribas Telegraafsale of Limburg newspapers (NL)ING TPIsale by TelefonicaSG Trader Media Eaststrategic review (CEE)Morgan Stanley, LongacreUBMsale of various magazines (UK)LongAcre?Video InternationalIPO (Rus)UBS Brunswick VNUsale (NL)Credit SuisseVNUindependent valuation (NL)Rothschild World DirectoriesTPI bid (Sp)Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse YellTPI bid (Sp)Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs
D
EBT PIPELINE
3iChorion bidGE Commercial FinanceAlpinvest et alVNU LBO debt Citi, Deutsche, JPMorgan, Lehman, ING, ABNCodereE150 bond issueCredit Suisse, Morgan Stanley Est RepublicainSocpresse debt financeCredit MutuelFormula 1Rumoured RecapRBSPrisaSogecable buy out financing (Spa)Citigroup Talpa MediaE123m syndicated loanING, Fortis, Rabobank TMGSky Radio debt finance ING TPIsale staple financingSG Trader Media EastE250m debt packageBNP Paribas, WestLBUnity Media E1.35bn FRNCitigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs
UNMANDATED
/
RUMOUR MILL
EditisrefinancingEmap France bidderssale process launchedEndemol biddersPE approaches rumouredOrkla bidders sale process launchedSportfiveIPO bank Viacom, Clear Channelpossible European exits
Europe2
Media Finance
Issue 94
April 13 2006©2005 Thompson Stanley Publishers Ltd
Austria
betandwin raises capital
Listed online betting firm
betandwin.com InteractiveEntertainment AG
issued 1.4 million new shares – of which1.3 million are for performance related stock options formanagement, and 100,000 are deferred payment toNorway’s Spinn Invest AS in connection with the purchasein 2003 of Playit.com.
The auction of the vacant radio frequency 94.2 MHz inthe city of Graz has reportedly attracted 11 contenders,including Radio Arabella, Radio Harmonie (Styria Medien),the Fellner brothers, Radio Energy, Radio Maria, Welle 1Salzburg, Truckradio and local broadcaster WKK. The fre-quency was occupied by Radio Nostalgie.
Finland
29 line up for DTT
29 companies have expressed an interest in utilising capaci-ty on the country’s first digital terrestrial network followinga first round of bidding. Successful bids will be allocatedcapacity on both an existing multiplex and a new multiplexscheduled for launch in the next few years. Swedish broad-caster SVT has already bagged two channels on the new multiplex. Other bidders are BBC World Distribution Ltd,C More Entertainment, Discovery Communications, MTV Networks, National Geographic Channel, TurnerBroadcasting, Viasat and The Walt Disney Company. The deadline for full applications is May 2. In a separateannouncement Finland has awarded its DVB-H multiplexto TDF’s Digita unit, seeing off TeliaSonera, Elisa, and Telemast Nordic, a unit of France’s Towercast.
France
PSG sold by Canal Plus
As predicted in MF 93, Canal Plus and its group of investorshave sold football club
Paris St. Germain
to a group of investors including Butler Capital Partners and MorganStanley and a real estate fund jointly owned by Eurazeo andColony Capital, for E41m. Alain Cayzac, an existing direc-tor at the club who will now take over its running, is also ashareholder.PSG was an obvious choice to become the first French foot-ball club to be taken private by financial investors: it used tobe one of the top two clubs in France along with Marseillebut has lost form in recent years and today it is best knownfor the role it is taking in the revival of French football hooli-ganism. The disposal by Canal Plus brings the French football leaguemore into line with the UK where media companies thatinvested in Premiership clubs in the 1990s in the hope it would bring them access to rich pay per view revenuestreams, have now for the most part sold out. Only ITV remains: it still holds 10% stakes in Arsenal and Liverpool,but is likely to sell them at a loss as it continues to focus onits core business.
N
O DEADLINEYET FOR
E
MAP SALE
The disposal of
Emap France
moves on, with a draft IMhaving been circulated to bankers, though sources say nodeadline has yet been set for first round bids.
BNP Paribas
and
Citigroup
are running the sale for Emap. Apparently astaple financing package put together BNP Paribas hasslowed things somewhat owing to the due diligence process.“Emap aren’t testing the market like DMGT did withNorthcliffe, this has been in the offing a long time andthey’re coming out now as we speak,” commented onepotential buy side adviser. To date though the sale is still at the point where every oneis naming everyone else as potential buyers. Mondadori of Italy has been making a lot of noise, but its lack of a track record in international acquisition strategy puts it at a disad-
3Europe
Media Finance
Issue 94
April 13 2006©2005 Thompson Stanley Publishers Ltd
C
HANGING MEDIA
Content delivery:
3G mobile firm 3 is to supply usergenerated 3G content to ITV and Five.
The BBC and ITV have begun a six month pilot inLondon of HDTV over DVB-T
BSkyB has announced plans to introduce a new settop box to allow delivery of its channels via IPTV as partof a soft launch of its Sky Net service. A number of peo-ple in the UK are currently unable to subscribe to Sky astheir dwelling does not have a clear line of sight to Sky’ssatellites.
Untangling DRM: Walt Disney
is to make certain highrating ABC shows such as ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’ available forfree on the internet via its website, abc.com. Programmes will be screened in widescreen format and made availablethe morning after their initial screening. Programmes will be able to be fast forwarded, rewound and pausedbut will include adverts that cannot be skipped.Advertisers including P&G, Toyota, Unilever andCingular have already signed up to the new revenuestream.
The BBC is negotiating with Apple to lengthen theseven-day rights window it currently enjoys for showingprogrammes via its own websites in order to distributethem over iTunes.
Pop culture:
UK advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchihas manufactured its own girl band in a bid to influencethe hearts and minds of young audiences.
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