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PARIS - An obscure Swiss firm managed to baffle Parisian journalists, investors and regulators today by announcing plans to take control of Disneyland Paris.
Center-Tainment AG sent tremors through the Magic Kingdom by calling a news conference to launch a bid worth 11 euro cents (NZ22c) a share but then faltered.
"Unfortunately our chief legal counsel is sick so we have had to postpone the action for a few days. The official offer will come in the next days," said Kurt Andreesen, who identified himself as an independent investment banker for the company.
Shares in Euro Disney closed at seven cents, down two cents or 22 per cent, after rising on Wednesday on word of an offer.
The purported bid for the loss-making operator of Disneyland Paris, a European cousin of the US Disney theme parks, started with a statement in broken English on Wednesday.
Center-Tainment CEO Ulf Werner, 60, told reporters the aim of the bid was to gain management control and renegotiate the operating licence agreements with Walt Disney Co.
A spokeswoman for French markets regulator AMF said: "The AMF ordered Center-Tainment to submit a formal bid for Euro Disney before Monday or to renounce it intentions for a period of at least six months."
She added that because Center-Tainment was listed on the unregulated market segment in Frankfurt, the offer had to be in cash because share swap offers in principle are only accepted by companies listed on regulated markets.
There was no immediate comment from Walt Disney.
It was unclear how Center-Tainment intended to overcome the legal hurdles that protect Euro Disney's management, which is currently delegated to a 100 per cent-subsidiary of Walt Disney.
Under Euro Disney's statutes, the Walt Disney subsidiary has the exclusive right to nominate any new manager should the current arrangements change for whatever reason.
Center-Tainment insisted it could get around these rules if it achieved its goal of obtaining 50.01 per cent of the company.
Andreesen said Center-Tainment would be in a position to manage the park "without Walt Disney", if necessary, although Werner said this was not the company's intention.
Euro Disney said it had been unable to find out anything about its suitor. "Despite our attempts to obtain information from them, we have been unable to secure material information on this company," a statement said.
Werner said the French markets regulator, AMF, had been informed of the offer "today". German regulator BaFin said it had no background knowledge about Center-Tainment, although a bid by a Swiss company, albeit German-listed, for a French one would not fall under its jurisdiction.
Sceptical journalists pressed Werner and his entourage for details on their backers and their own backgrounds, but received vague answers. The company said its executives had decades of experience in the leisure industry, including indoor soccer.
Center-Tainment said 45 shareholders, led by an unidentified German company, owned 99 per cent of the stock and that the remaining one per cent was traded in the market.
Asked to identify which bank would lead any offering in France, Werner said: "It will be a Swiss bank."
When pressed, he added: "There are several banks ... regarding the lead position of the bank, we are still negotiating."
Center-Tainment's stock closed down 82.5 per cent at 3.50 euros after climbing sharply in recent weeks.
Its market capitalisation fell to 35 million euros, compared with Euro Disney's 272 million euros.
Any purchaser would face an immediate headache over Euro Disney's debt of 1.6 billion euros.
Center-Tainment was registered for the first time in the Swiss canton of Zug on May 19, when it changed its name from Orca and changed its purpose to that of a broad-purpose financial services and real estate holding company.
It was listed in Frankfurt in September.
Officials said they had bought Orca purely as a shell company for the purpose of mounting a Euro Disney bid.
Andreesen said the company had a plan B in case Euro Disney investors rejected its planned share offer. "Maybe there will be a cash offer, as a next step, if our share offer doesn't work."
- REUTERS
