BSkyB to pursue £1bn option as Kirch files for insolvency

LONDON - As Kirch Group filed for insolvency today, BSkyB says it will pursue it for the put option it holds in Kirch's pay-TV operations, which would force the bankrupt German media firm to pay the UK broadcaster £1.04bn.

BSkyB to pursue £1bn option as Kirch files for insolvency

BSkyB has a put option exercisable in October on its 22% stake in Kirch's pay-TV operations. Kirch must, under the terms of the option, buy back Sky's stake.

Sky has already written off the value of the option at just under £1bn when it reported its first-half results in February.

A spokesman for Sky said: "Sky remains focused on its put option."

Debt-ridden Kirch Group's film and free-television unit KirchMedia began insolvency proceedings this morning when it filed documents with a Munich court.

The move will see creditors take control of KirchMedia once it has been put in administration. This will see assets transferred to a new administrator-controlled company.

The insolvency went ahead after shareholders rejected a £490m plan backed by Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi. The plan would have given the two media giants control of Premiere, the loss-making pay-TV network which has been a massive drain on Kirch, and ProSiebenSAT.1, Germany's biggest TV broadcaster.

Murdoch already holds 22% of Premiere through BSkyB. However, the stumbling block was thought to have been that Premiere needs around $1bn (£697.3m) in fresh capital, which News Corp does not want to provide.

Kirch has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for days. Last week, shareholders gathered for last-ditch rescue talks, which broke up without agreement on how to save the company. Kirch is struggling with €8.8bn (£5.4bn) of debt and has had advisers looking at what assets it could dispose of to survive.

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