NOVEMBER 9, 2000

Haffa takes another hammering

THOMAS HAFFA's EM.TV media company, which owns 50% of the Formula One group of companies took another hammering on the Frankfurt Neuer Markt on Wednesday when the firm's share price dropped another 8.3% in a day. The shares, which were worth around 120 Euros ($110) in the Spring are now worth only 31 Euros ($26) and in the course of Wednesday trading dropped to a new low of 30.5 Euros. This means that the value of the whole company is only just over $3bn and with Haffa wanting $2bn for his share in Formula 1 the company is increasingly in danger of a hostile takeover bid as its media assets are worth considerably more than $2bn. But despite arguments from analysts that the company is now undervalued the share price refuses to recover and the longer this goes on the worse things are likely to get for Haffa.