JUNE 12, 2002

That's it for Kirch...

TAURUSHOLDING and Kirch Beteiligung sought bankruptcy protection from creditors in a Munich court on Wednesday bringing to an end the drawn-out struggle to keep them alive after the Kirch Pay-TV and Kirch Media operations went into administration. The announcement means that the Kirch empire becomes the biggest bankruptcy in Germany since the 1930s.

The collapse of Kirch Betieligung means that the stake owned by the company in SLEC, the Formula 1 holding company, is now in the hands of the administrator working with the creditor banks. It is hoped that now that the old Kirch management is out of the way, a quick solution can be found to sell the SLEC shares so that the Formula One group can move towards reorganizing the sport, involving the automobile manufacturers.