MediaForEurope profit up as it eyes potential ProSieben bid

Recasts, adds CEO quotes in paragraph 3, shares and analysts comments in paragraph 6

By Elvira Pollina

MILAN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - MFE-MediaforEurope MFEB.MI, the commercial TV group of Italy's Berlusconi family, reported a 15% rise in its 2024 full-profit as it eyes a potential bid for German peer ProSiebenSat.1 PSMGn.DE later this year.

The group, which owns TV operations in Italy and Spain, is the leading investor in ProSiebenSat PSMGn.DE and secured a 3.4 billion euros financing package for a potential bid as part of its plans to build an ad-funded European broadcaster.

"We are ready to take on a challenge at a European level", said Chief executive Pier Silvio Berlusconi in a statement.

MFE said outlook for 2025 remained "good" after it reported preliminary net profit at 251 million euros ($262.67 million) in 2024. The figure strips out any contribution from its stake in ProSieben.

The company said that 2025 has started on a positive note, with advertising sales up 1% in January on an annual basis, after total revenue rose by 5% to 2.95 billion euros last year, boosted from its home Italian market.

Milan-listed shares in MFE MFEB.MI fell 1.8% by 1000 GMT, against a 1% drop in Italy's all-share index .FTITLMS with analysts citing the prospect of sluggish growth for advertising sales in 2025 as outlook for the eurozone economy remained weak.

MFE sees cross-border deals as the response to the increasing dominance of U.S. streaming services, such as Netflix NFLX.O, and the flight of advertising budgets to tech giants, such as Facebook META.O and Google GOOGL.O.

A decision over a bid could come as soon as next month, after the release of ProSiebenSat.1's full-year earnings on March 6, according to two people familiar with the matter.

MFE first invested in ProSieben in 2019 to build a nearly 30% holding, just below a threshold which would trigger a mandatory takeover.

The Bavaria-based group has resisted MFE's calls to join its pan-European project, striving to remain independent.

For its part, MFE has repeatedly called on ProSieben to focus on its core TV business, and sell TV assets to cut debt.

Last year MFE had sought a spin-off of ProSieben's non-core e-commerce and online dating operations but a shareholder vote fell just short of the required majority.

($1 = 0.9556 euros)