Ad hoc announcement acc. to Sec. 15 WpHG: United Internet sells its directly held freenet shares
Montabaur, August 26, 2009. In an over-the-counter transaction, United Internet AG (ISIN DE0005089031) today sold the 10,798,817 shares (corresponding to 8.43% of voting rights) which it held directly in freenet AG, Büdelsdorf. The proceeds from the sale amounted to EUR 93.95 million, corresponding to a price of EUR 8.70 / share.
United Internet expects to post an extraordinary income from the sale of the freenet shares. Contrary to this positive result, it is currently expected that the carrying value of shares held by United Internet in Versatel will be written down in the third quarter due to the falling market price of Versatel shares. The size of the write-down will depend on the closing Xetra price of the Versatel AG share on September 30, 2009. As of the current date, United Internet expects the two aforementioned divergent effects to result in an extraordinary positive income of around EUR 20 million in the third quarter of 2009.
Together with Drillisch AG, Maintal, United Internet continues to hold 12,751,183 shares (corresponding to 9.96% of voting rights) in freenet AG via the jointly held company MSP Holding GmbH, in which each company holds a 50% stake. In addition, Drillisch AG holds shares in freenet AG. The contractual voting commitment between United Internet and Drillisch remains unchanged, so that the share of voting rights held by United Internet AG still about 17 % after the sale of the freenet shares it held directly.