This is why Mediaset moves to the Netherlands
The Mediaset shareholders' meeting approves the transfer of the registered office to the Netherlands. The group seeks more favorable taxation and governance. And not only. All the details
Mediaset's shareholders' meeting approved the transfer of the company's registered office to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The decision was announced last April and was motivated with the ambition of expanding the company's reference market, from the Italian to the European one.
BECAUSE HOLLAND
The president of Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, explained today, in his speech at the opening of the meeting, that the transfer to the Netherlands is aimed "at placing the company's headquarters in a jurisdiction which, for various reasons, is ideal for the purpose, such as demonstrate the numerous transfers to Holland of the headquarters of many groups, including Italians, with an extraordinary vocation ”.
Among the “multi-groups” to which Confalonieri alluded are, for example, Cementir (a company of the Caltagirone group that produces cement and concrete) and the automobile company FCA.
To explain the reasons behind the transfer of the registered offices in the Netherlands, Il Sole 24 Ore wrote some time ago: "Because the taxation on financial profits in the Netherlands is practically nil and then for governance reasons: according to Dutch law it is much easier to the reference shareholder controls the decisions even if he does not have the majority of votes in the meeting ".
WHAT CONFALONIERI SAID
In the words of Confalonieri, Mediaset “aims at a system capable of responding to the need to find a neutral and supranational corporate platform, adequate for the realization of a project with this ambition”. The company will therefore acquire "the legal form of a naamloze vennootschap governed by Dutch law".
TAXES AND PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES IN ITALY
The president wished to specify that, despite the move of the registered office to another country, "the company will continue to pay taxes in Italy and will maintain its production activities here".
As Askanews writes, following the transfer, the Mediaset shares will remain listed on the Italian Stock Exchange; the tax residence and central administration of the company will also remain in Italy.
INCREASING THE SCALE IS INEVITABLE
“The media market,” added Confalonieri, has become a heavyweight arena. The increase in scale at European level is inevitable for local free TV operators, who have remained the only ones in the market that do not have a supranational approach. Consolidation in Europe will take place, with all due respect. Much better that it is promoted by Mediaset than by an American operator ”.
WHAT HAS BEEN DECIDED ON DIVIDENDS
The 2020 consolidated financial statements were approved at the shareholders' meeting, which closed with revenues of 2.6 billion euros, a positive result before financial charges (Ebit) of 269.7 million and a net result of 139.3 million. The distribution of an extraordinary dividend of 0.3 euro per outstanding share was also approved, which will be paid out on 21 July.
For those shareholders who exercise their right of withdrawal for the transfer of the registered office in the Netherlands, a sum of € 1.881 per share will be recognized: i.e. the difference between the liquidation price (€ 2.181) and the extraordinary dividend (0.3 EUR).
AND YOU LIVE?
As explained in Start Magazine , the passage of Mediaset's registered office in the Netherlands will not lead to clashes with the French Vivendi, which in 2016 had tried a hostile takeover to buy Mediaset and which "in recent years has slowed down the pan-European project Media for Europe promoted by Fininvest, of which the transfer was really a pivotal step ".
In fact, last May Mediaset and Vivendi reached an agreement for the cessation of their disputes: Mediaset renounced the increased vote (which allowed it a sort of double vote in the shareholders' meeting), while Vivendi said it was in favor of the transfer of the headquarters legal in Amsterdam.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/mediaset-olanda-trasferimento-sede/ on Wed, 23 Jun 2021 13:45:46 +0000.