Firm to make hostile bid for Euro Disney

An obscure Swiss firm said Wednesday that it would launch a hostile takeover bid for Euro Disney, sending up shares in the money-losing manager of Disneyland Resort Paris.

With Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. owning 39.8% of the company, and a longtime investment ally, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owning 10%, the acquisition might have been planned in Fantasyland.

Nevertheless, hopes of a Cinderella ending drove Euro Disney’s stock up 2 euro cents to 9 cents a share, the highest since July, on heavy volume.

Center-Tainment, which began public trading in Germany this fall, said it would explain the proposed stock-for-stock offer at a news conference today.

In a written statement, Euro Disney said it was aware of the scheduled news conference but had been “unable to secure material information on this company.�

Walt Disney did not add more comment, and neither Center-Tainment nor the prince could be reached for comment.

Earlier, Center-Tainment executives told European journalists that the company would offer 11 euro cents’ worth of its stock for each Euro Disney share.

Little public information was available about Center-Tainment. Bloomberg News reported that the company had a stock market value of 200 million euros, roughly half of Euro Disney’s value.

Although Center-Tainment’s approach so far is unorthodox, some Euro Disney investors might be willing to kiss a number of frogs in search of a new prince.

Euro Disney’s stock has fallen more than 90% in the last decade, and the company has lost money in each of the last four years.

Under the terms of a 2005 restructuring, Euro Disney must increase earnings in order to avoid violating agreements with its lenders.

In Walt Disney’s annual filing with stock regulators last week, the company said that it believed Euro Disney had met the required targets for 2006, but that the performance was subject to outside confirmation.

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