German pay-TV firm Sky Deutschland held its AGM in late April, during which shareholders approved the board’s plan to a further capital increase and a potential E500m bond issue.
In a transcript of the AGM, Sky Deutschland CFO Pietro Maranzana stated:…
German pay-TV firm Sky Deutschland held its AGM in late April, during which shareholders approved the board’s plan to a further capital increase and a potential E500m bond issue.
In a transcript of the AGM, Sky Deutschland CFO Pietro Maranzana stated: “Due to the capital increase in January, the existing authorised capital was partly exercised. In order to continue to give the management board and the supervisory board sufficient financial flexibility, we are asking the Annual General Meeting to agree to agenda item 11 and approve the creation of new authorised capital by issuing up to 269,580,929 new shares.
Furthermore, we ask the Annual General Meeting to approve agenda item 12 for the authorisation to create a contingent capital to issue convertible bonds and/or notes with warrants up to E500m. The replacement of this authorisation will ensure that the Management Board will maintain its ability to use attractive financing options to provide Sky with debt capital at favourable interest rates.”
Despite protests from certain minority shareholders, including Matthias Gaebler describing the proposed E500m bond issue as smacking of megalomania, both items were passed by more than 98% of shareholders.
The capital increase will be the operator’s seventh in the past five years, although new CEO Brian Sullivan said this would be the last for at least the next 12 months.
Three new supervisory board members were also voted in at the AGM – Chase Carey, the deputy chairman, president and COO of News Corp; Miriam Kraus, the senior VP of global governance, risk and compliance at SAP; and Katrin Wehr-Seiter, a self-employed business and investment consultant. This means that the Sky Deutschland board now has a total of nine members.
Sky Deutschland recorded a core loss of E64.5m for Q1 2010, an increase on the E30m loss recorded during the same period the previous year.
It reiterated its forecast for a total loss of E170m in 2010.
Separately, the German pay-TV operator is seeking closer cooperation with local cable firms, having struck an agreement with NetCologne. The deal sees the Cologne based cableco bundle its own products with those of Sky to offers customers a triple play package. The deal is expected to be the first of several.
