FEBRUARY 13, 2002

Complications for Kirch

WERNER KLATTEN, the boss of EM.TV, has revealed that his company still owns 16.7% of SLEC because a deal to sell those shares to Kirch has never been completed and at the moment the shares cannot be sold as they are being used to secure a loan with the Bayerische Landesbank. This means that only Kirch can buy them (unless the bank takes them over) and so Kirch does not own as much of SLEC as was announced: the company's actual shareholding is 58.3%.

The Ecclestone Family continues to control 25% of the shares and Bernie Ecclestone has an agreement to remain in control of the business for several more years.