ProSiebenSat.1 Media to become a ‘European Company’

ProSiebenSat.1 Media is to convert itself into a European Company in order to establish “stronger international alignment” for its digital business.

ProSiebenSat.1 said that it expects the conversion to take place next summer, following a shareholder meeting to decide on the matter next May.

It said this will not affect the rights of its employees and the shareholders, and that it will continue to operate with a dualistic system consisting of the executive board and the supervisory board. The listing of the company’s shares will also remain unaffected

A European Company – also known by the Latin name Societas Europaea or SE – is a type of public limited-liability company regulated under EU law.

The European Company statute was introduced in 2004 and is designed to offer a simpler way for companies run their business if they are active in more than one EU country – for example by reorganising their activities under a single European label.

European Company status also allows a company to transfer its registered office to another EU country without having to dissolve the business.

To date, the European Company statute has been adopted by more than 1,800 businesses that run their activities in more than one EU country, according to the European Commission.

Separately, ProSiebenSat.1 said today that it now expects to achieve its revenue growth target of €800 million (US$1.01 billion) for 2015 (compared to 2010) by the end of this year – ahead of schedule.

ProSiebenSat.1 said it is also making “very good progress” towards its target of a €1 billion revenue increase (compared to 2012), which was set for 2018.

“We are on an excellent path with the expansion of our digital business, the interlinking of our audio-visual content and the development of innovative business models. We will therefore be achieving our ambitious financial targets for 2015 early by the end of 2014,” said CEO Thomas Ebeling.

“We have worked our way up to leading market positions in all areas and will continue the forward-looking, dynamic development of our business on this basis. This also includes the growing internationalisation of our digital business in the coming years.”