ProSiebenSAT1 Says Springer Bid Too Low

German television group ProSiebenSAT1 said Friday that the price newspaper publisher Axel Springer was offering to pay its minority shareholders for their shares in Germany's biggest free-to-air broadcaster was too low. ProSiebenSAT1 said in a statement that the offer price of 14.11 euros ($16.93) per preference share "meets the statutory requirements." Nevertheless, "irrespective of compliance of the offer price with applicable legal requirements, the executive and supervisory boards take the view that the offer price does not reflect the full value of the ProSiebenSAT1 preference share," the statement said. As a result, neither the executive nor the supervisory board was willing to make a recommendation whether shareholders should accept or decline the offer, ProSiebenSAT1 said. ProSieben preference shares closed at 14.29 euros on Thursday. Minority shareholders hold around 37.5 percent of the capital. Axel Springer, publisher of the mass-circulation daily Bild and the national daily Die Welt, already controls ProSiebenSAT1 after it acquired a 50.5-percent stake from a consortium of investors grouped around US-Israeli billionaire Haim Saban.