A recently discovered document could affect the legal
proceedings of the Kirch Media Group against Deutsche Bank AG (DB),
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported in a preview of
its Tuesday edition.
Kirch and Deutsche Bank have been in a decadelong legal battle
involving civil and criminal proceedings. Heirs to former German
media mogul Leo Kirch claim Deutsche Bank bears some of the blame
for its 2002 insolvency due to interview comments made by then
Deutsche Bank chief executive, Rolf Breuer. Kirch is demanding
billions of euros in compensation. A Munich appeals court ruled in
December that Deutsche Bank bears some liability for the insolvency
but has yet to set compensation.
According to the newspaper, a transcript of an Axel Springer AG
(SPR.XE) supervisory board meeting from Jan. 14, 2002, shows that
there were serious concerns about Kirch's creditworthiness even
before Mr. Breuer publicly raised doubts about it.
The newspaper reported that, according to the transcript, then
Springer chief executive, Mathias Doepfner, said at the meeting
lenders wouldn't likely give the Kirch company further funds. Mr.
Kirch attended the meeting.
Mr. Doepfner also said that Kirch could go insolvent, were
Springer to exercise an existing option to sell a stake in
commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (PSM.XE) back to
Kirch, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Nonetheless,
the meeting decided that Kirch had to buy back the stake for 767
million euro ($1.03 billion), the paper reported. Kirch didn't
support that decision, according to FAZ.
However, a Kirch spokesman said the information isn't new.
"The Munich court made it unmistakably clear that the former
Kirch group could still have been restructured, but that was
thwarted by Deutsche Bank," the Kirch spokesman said.
A Springer spokeswoman and Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to
comment on the report.
Newspaper website: http://www.faz.net
Write to the Frankfurt Bureau at
djnews.frankfurt@dowjones.com
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