Mfe increases its dividend (+8%) and reduces the value of its stake in Prosieben

Growing accounts, solid cash and a richer dividend. Mfe-MediaForEurope, the international holding company that controls Mediaset and Mediaset España, closes a positive 2024, accompanied by an 8% increase in remuneration for shareholders, with the dividend rising from 25 to 27 cents per share. We are talking about a dowry of 151.5 million euro (with a payout ratio of 110% compared to the reported net profit of 137.9 million), which represents part of the more than 905 million euro distributed over the last five years (about 43% of Mfe's market cap, recalls a slide presented to analysts).

The one just concluded is also the prelude to a year, 2025, in which the Cologno group has decided to launch its bet on Prosiebensat. The announcement of the take-over bid on 25 March last - waiting to go ahead after the German Financial Market Authority (Bafin) approved the document - was followed two days ago by the announcement that Mfe has now risen above 30% (precisely from 29.99% to 30.09%) of the capital of the Unterföhring-based subsidiary. All this with market buying for a move that was in any case expected, not least because of the agreement with a Prosiebensat shareholder already announced when the takeover bid was announced.

On this side, for the time being there is no stated goal regarding the shareholding to be achieved. 'The main objective is to obtain more flexibility for the future and to have a little more say in Prosieben. We will see what the outcome will be and then decide,' said cfo Marco Giordani during the conference call with analysts. The direction, however, is set, in the sign of a pan-European challenge that sees the Bavarian broadcaster as a key target in the industrial mosaic of the group led by Pier Silvio Berlusconi.

In this context, returning to the 2024 accounts approved yesterday by the Mfe board - which confirmed the preliminary results released in February - a non-cash write-down of EUR 128.2m on the shareholding in Prosiebensat was announced. 'This is an accounting transaction with no impact on cash. But clearly,' Giordani added, 'it was an unforeseen operation that we had to record in our balance sheet following the decision of Prosieben's supervisory board. The cfo's reference is to the agreement between Prosiebensat and General Atlantic to purchase the minority shares of the German media company's non-core business.

The impairment loss nevertheless emerges in the financial statements with the group's net result falling to EUR 137.9 million compared to the adjusted value of EUR 266.1 million (+27.2% compared to EUR 209.2 million in 2023). Beyond this, the indicators communicated in February are confirmed: revenues up 5% to €2.9 billion and an adjusted operating result, excluding non-recurring items, of €370 million (reported +18%).