Swiss group Center-Tainment springs hostile bid for Euro Disney

The chequered story of theme park operator Euro Disney took a twist as dramatic as anything in a Mickey Mouse cartoon when an obscure Swiss holding company announced plans for a hostile takeover bid.

Swiss group Center-Tainment, registered in the renowned low-tax canton of Zug, will launch a takeover bid in the next few days, its chief executive Ulf Werner told reporters here.

Euro Disney, which operates the Disney theme park near Paris, has been forced to restructure its finances twice since being launched in the early 1990s and was facing insolvency in February last year.

The Paris resort claims to be Europe's most popular tourist attraction with 12.8 million visitors in its year to September, but it remains loss-making and still has 1.9 billion euros in debt.

The takeover offer from Center-Tainment will be an all-share offer for Euro Disney's free floating stock, aimed at giving Center-Tainment a 50.01-percent stake, Werner said at a news conference here.

"Our purpose is to make Euro Disney profitable so that shareholders can participate in the results of the operating company and not only pay off the debt and interest charges," he said.

Kurt Andreesen, described as a consultant to Center-Tainment, said the company would offer one Center-Tainment share for about 200 Euro Disney shares, which would value 50.01 percent of the company at just 200 million euros, according to a calculation by AFP.

Shares in Euro Disney were worth 0.08 percent on the Paris stock exchange in mid-afternoon trading.

The consultant said he was convinced Center-Tainment would reach its 50.01 percent target, adding that it had investors behind it who have enough money to finance its plans.

The stable shareholders in Euro Disney are the US media and theme park group Walt Disney, which owns a 39.8-percent stake, and Saudi Arabian Prince al-Walid who has a 10-percent holding.

Andreesen also said that Center-Tainment would negotiate a new commercial deal between the Paris theme park and Walt Disney.

"We want to negotiate a new contract between Euro Disney and Walt Disney and make Euro Disney more profitable," he said.

Faced with insolvency in February 2005, Euro Disney completed a 253.3-million-euro capital increase after agreement was reached with Walt Disney and creditor banks to restructure and cut the group's debt from 2.4 billion euros to 1.9 billion euros.

Andreesen said Center-Tainment, which is quoted on the Frankfurt stock exchange, was trading at 13 euros per share, down from 34 euros a few days ago. With 10 million shares in issue, it has a market value of 130 million euros, he said.

The company has "45 or 46" shareholders, with the core investor being a German company, Werner said, without revealing its name.

Andreesen said he had spoken to Karl Holz, Euro Disney's chairman, on Wednesday to invite him to the press conference.

A spokesman for Euro Disney told AFP on Wednesday that there been no "discussions of offer details" with the Swiss company however.

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