(Reuters) – The German media group Prosiebensat. 1 fell on the stock market Thursday after its Italian rival MFE (Mediaforceurope) launched a public offer of voluntary purchasing deemed disappointing.

In Frankfurt at 9:43 am GMT, the Prosiebensat title. 1 lost 11.26% to 5.80 euros, red lantern of the German index of small capitalizations.

In Milan at the same time, the title of MFE gave up 2.65%.

According to analysts, the offer, the amount of which is set at the minimum level authorized by the German rules in terms of share repurchase, will probably be limited, but it will allow MFE, controlled by the Berlusconi family, to gradually take control of Prosieben.

The Italian group indeed holds almost 30% of Prosiebensat.1, just below the threshold beyond which, under German law, a public purchase offer is compulsory.

Once the 30% threshold has been crossed, “MFE will have the opportunity to buy other actions on the market without having to make (new) compulsory offer,” said a note from the JP Morgan broker, stressing that this would allow MFE to acquire a “progressive control” from Prosiebensat. 1.

This offer is part of MFE’s strategy, which also has television activities in Spain, and wishes to form a pan -European giant in the sector funded by advertising.

Prosiebensat.1, which also operates in Austria and Switzerland, has opposed such a strategy so far and wishes to remain independent.

“Assuming that the price of the action remains higher than the price of the offer, we do not expect many Pro7 shareholders to accept the offer,” said Daniel Kerven, analyst at JP Morgan.

Prosiebensat.1 declared to expect the price offered to be around 5.75 euros per share. This price is lower than the closing course of 6.53 euros per share on Wednesday, which valued the company at around 1.5 billion euros.

The German group said its board of directors would carefully examine MFE’s offer.

(Written by Etienne Breban, with Anastasiia Kozlova and Elvira Pollina, edited by Kate Entringer)

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