Closing date
Urs Lüdi, publisher of the private radio station TZ, explains why he is selling his shares in Radio Top to Günter Heuberger.
Private radio TZ publisher Urs Lüdi explains why he is selling Günter Heuberger his top radio shares Publisher Urs Lüdi makes one thing clear right at the beginning of the interview with Werbewoche: "The Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) is not in financial difficulties, it will close 2003 with a profit." Astonishing: Since 2001, the first year in its current form, the TZ has recorded a 41 percent drop in advertising, with a 72 percent drop in jobs (according to VSW). But the TZ publisher puts this into perspective. His paper has not lost more than others, the volume loss on the basis of paid millimeters since 2001 is only 31 percent. The difference to the higher volume loss in the VSW statistics is due to the fact that TZ also reported its own advertisements and unpaid advertisements in 2001 and 2002. Lüdi: "We stopped doing this in 2003."
Ten years paid on top
Even though Lüdi's publishing house was in the black in 2003, the Chairman of Huber & Co cited financial reasons for leaving Radio Top. "The station continues to generate significant losses." This is not due to the Top concept or its crew, but rather because of the high infrastructure costs - 4 studios and 15 transmitters - the station has "never really been in the black".
A good ten years of involvement in radio, including five years as a partner in Radio Top, drained a lot of resources from Huber & Co - Urs Lüdi doesn't want to say how much. As radio is not part of the publishing core business, he has decided to get out. A view that is diametrically opposed to that of the large media companies. Lüdi regrets: "I would like to be active in multimedia, but I can no longer afford it and no longer want to."
Another reason for his exit: Lüdi makes no secret of the fact that he is not on the same page as top CEO Günter Heuberger when it comes to corporate policy issues. "As a minority shareholder, we were unable to make our voice heard as we had hoped," says the outgoing top Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In addition: In future, the Federal Office of Communications will hardly award radio licenses on such a small scale as before, which is why the wholly-owned Huber subsidiary Radio Thurgau AG (RTG) will have to cede its Thurgau license to Top anyway.
And finally, according to Lüdi, his exit would make the ownership structure at Radio Top more transparent and the station more manageable. In fact, Heuberger has announced that Radio Top will become a publicly owned company - provided that the Leuenberger department approves the sale of RTG to Heuberger.
Should this occur, the future ownership structure at Radio Top will probably be as follows: Heuberger will hold around 54 percent of the shares, Board member Martin U. Model 8.5 percent. The remainder will be shared by a good 170 small shareholders.
Heuberger regrets Lüdi's departure. He had valued the publisher not only as Chairman of the Board of Directors, but also as a strategic corrective. Lüdi had also always been able to establish contact with the publishers in Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen and Schaffhausen. Due to the top successes in the listener market, he occasionally found himself in awkward sandwich positions, which he mastered with aplomb. Heuberger announced that he would be looking for a new Chairman of the Board of Directors. As Managing Director, he did not wish to accumulate offices.
Complicated ownership structureRadio Top is a merger of the three local radio stations Thurgau, Wil and Eulach (Winterthur), each of which holds a partial license from Top. Eulach holds 50 percent of Top, the other two 25 percent each.
Shares. Radio Thurgau (RTG) was previously 100 percent owned by Huber & Co, now 100 percent by Günter Heuberger. At Wil, 44 public shareholders share the shares, at Eulach there are 135. However, Heuberger holds large stakes in both companies, 42 percent at Eulach and 42 percent at Wil
34 percent. Radio top board member Martin U. Model also holds 34 percent of Wil. (mk)
Günter Heuberger: Radio Top is to become a public company.
TZ publisher Urs Lüdi
Markus Knöpfli
Ten years paid on top
Even though Lüdi's publishing house was in the black in 2003, the Chairman of Huber & Co cited financial reasons for leaving Radio Top. "The station continues to generate significant losses." This is not due to the Top concept or its crew, but rather because of the high infrastructure costs - 4 studios and 15 transmitters - the station has "never really been in the black".
A good ten years of involvement in radio, including five years as a partner in Radio Top, drained a lot of resources from Huber & Co - Urs Lüdi doesn't want to say how much. As radio is not part of the publishing core business, he has decided to get out. A view that is diametrically opposed to that of the large media companies. Lüdi regrets: "I would like to be active in multimedia, but I can no longer afford it and no longer want to."
Another reason for his exit: Lüdi makes no secret of the fact that he is not on the same page as top CEO Günter Heuberger when it comes to corporate policy issues. "As a minority shareholder, we were unable to make our voice heard as we had hoped," says the outgoing top Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In addition: In future, the Federal Office of Communications will hardly award radio licenses on such a small scale as before, which is why the wholly-owned Huber subsidiary Radio Thurgau AG (RTG) will have to cede its Thurgau license to Top anyway.
And finally, according to Lüdi, his exit would make the ownership structure at Radio Top more transparent and the station more manageable. In fact, Heuberger has announced that Radio Top will become a publicly owned company - provided that the Leuenberger department approves the sale of RTG to Heuberger.
Should this occur, the future ownership structure at Radio Top will probably be as follows: Heuberger will hold around 54 percent of the shares, Board member Martin U. Model 8.5 percent. The remainder will be shared by a good 170 small shareholders.
Heuberger regrets Lüdi's departure. He had valued the publisher not only as Chairman of the Board of Directors, but also as a strategic corrective. Lüdi had also always been able to establish contact with the publishers in Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen and Schaffhausen. Due to the top successes in the listener market, he occasionally found himself in awkward sandwich positions, which he mastered with aplomb. Heuberger announced that he would be looking for a new Chairman of the Board of Directors. As Managing Director, he did not wish to accumulate offices.
Complicated ownership structureRadio Top is a merger of the three local radio stations Thurgau, Wil and Eulach (Winterthur), each of which holds a partial license from Top. Eulach holds 50 percent of Top, the other two 25 percent each.
Shares. Radio Thurgau (RTG) was previously 100 percent owned by Huber & Co, now 100 percent by Günter Heuberger. At Wil, 44 public shareholders share the shares, at Eulach there are 135. However, Heuberger holds large stakes in both companies, 42 percent at Eulach and 42 percent at Wil
34 percent. Radio top board member Martin U. Model also holds 34 percent of Wil. (mk)
Günter Heuberger: Radio Top is to become a public company.
TZ publisher Urs Lüdi
Markus Knöpfli
