Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 warns on profit amid tough economy

By Elvira Pollina and Paolo Laudani

(Reuters) - German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 on Tuesday cut its 2025 profit and revenue forecasts, citing challenges from an uncertain macroeconomic environment in German-speaking markets.

The outlook cut was announced after Italy's Berlusconi family-backed MFE-MediaForEurope closed a takeover bid for ProSieben earlier this month, securing a 75.1% stake in the Munich-based company.

In a statement, ProSieben said it expected the economic situation in the German-speaking region to remain difficult in the fourth quarter, the most important quarter for broadcasters that strive to secure commercials ahead of the Christmas season.

The media company now expects 2025 revenue between 3.65 billion and 3.80 billion euros ($4.32 billion-$4.50 billion), below its previous projection of about 3.85 billion euros.

Adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) are expected to range between 420 million and 470 million euros, down from a previous estimate of around 520 million.

It also expects entertainment advertising revenues in the German-speaking region to decline by a mid-single-digit percentage in the third quarter and to decline slightly in the fourth quarter.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday in a conference call about MFE's plans for ProSieben, MFE finance chief Marco Giordani said the Italian company would likely call an extraordinary shareholder meeting to revamp ProSieben's supervisory board if some members didn't step down to take into account the new ownership.

MFE, which already has TV operations in Italy and Spain, first invested in ProSieben in 2019 to build a nearly 30% stake before launching a cash-and-shares bid earlier this year as part of a European expansion strategy to withstand stiff competition in the industry.

Giordani added that MFE, which has not played an active role in managing ProSieben so far, would ask ProSieben's supervisory board to review its non-core assets, which include e-commerce and online dating ventures, to decide what to sell or wind down, in order to cut debt and focus more on the core TV business

ProSieben and Milan-listed MFE shares closed down by 2.6% and 0.58%, respectively.

($1 = 0.8450 euros)

(Reporting by Paolo Laudani and Elvira Pollina. Editing by Ludwig Burger and Mark Potter)