KirchMedia will not name shortlisted bidders for its assets

KirchMedia will not name the shortlisted bidders who will progress to the final round of the auction for its assets, or comment on the next step in the process at all, a spokesman for the insolvent German media concern said.

"There will be no announcement from us. We will not comment at all about this next step," the spokesman said.

A final decision on which of the seven bidders will be shortlisted for the final round of due diligence was expected to be made today.

According to a report in the Financial Times this morning, KirchMedia has already selected two bidders: the US media investor Haim Saban with the French television group TF1, and a group including Japan's Sony and Germany's Commerzbank AG, for the final stage of its auction.

The newspaper said KirchMedia advisors have yet to select a third group.

The FT said KirchMedia is understood to have asked a consortium including Axel Springer and Heinrich Bauer, the German publishing groups, to increase its initial bid as a condition for being admitted to the final stage.

The group, which had offered €1.4bn for KirchMedia's broadcast television assets and film library, is thought to have declined to raise its offer without access to further financial information, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, ProSiebenSat1 chief executive Urs Rohner said today he thinks the compositions of the consortia bidding for the assets of KirchMedia, which include a 52.5% stake in ProSiebenSat1, could still change.

He told journalists and analysts in a conference call, following the release of the German broadcaster's half-year results, he has the impression that new groupings among the consortia could emerge.