After years of tug-of-war, an agreement was reached with the founding family to take over the remaining 21.6 percent.
The German electronics retail chain MediaSaturn will in future be wholly owned by the parent company Ceconomy. After years of tug-of-war with the Media Markt founding family, the Kellerhals, the Düsseldorf-based group agreed to take over the remaining 21.6 percent of the shares in MediaSaturn, as Ceconomy announced on Monday evening.
Participation
In return, the Kellerhals family holding Convergenta will receive a 25.9 percent stake in Ceconomy, convertible bonds worth 160 million euros and 130 million euros in cash. Ceconomy put the value of the transaction on the basis of the current Ceconomy share price at a total of 815 million euros.
Convergenta wants to increase the stake to 29.9 percent. The family holding company was initially not available for comment.
Veto rights
MediaMarkt founder Erich Kellerhals had sold the majority of the chain 30 years ago, but had been granted extensive minority rights. That always caused arguments. The extensive veto rights of the Kellerhals family at Media Markt and Saturn were a thorn in the side of the management of what was then Metro.
Metro said goodbye to electronics retailing in 2017 and spun off the business to Ceconomy AG, a little later – in December 2017 – Erich Kellerhals died. The thread of conversation was resumed with his heirs. With the complete takeover, tax loss carryforwards totaling 2.4 billion euros in corporate and trade tax could be used, explained Ceconomy.
