Last Two Kirch Units Filing for Insolvency

The two remaining units of the collapsed Kirch media empire, Taurus Holding and Kirch Beteiligung, will join its television operations in going into administration on Tuesday, sources said.

The insolvency filing of Taurus, Kirch's umbrella holding company, and KirchBeteiligung, a collection of media assets including stakes in publishing house Axel Springer and the Formula One racing car business, would seal the failure of Leo Kirch's media group.

"Taurus Holding and KirchBeteiligung will likely file for insolvency today," a source close to Kirch told Reuters on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Munich insolvency court said there was no filing as of this morning.

A spokesman for Kirch declined to comment.

Kirch, Germany's second largest media firm, has been gradually collapsing since January under billions of euros of debt amassed in a spending spree in the late 1990s and during its expensive, failed attempt to succeed with pay TV in Germany.

Its free to air TV and rights arm KirchMedia filed for insolvency on April 8 and KirchPayTV followed on May 8.

KirchBeteiligung's crown jewel is its 40 percent stake in Axel Springer, publisher of Germany's best-selling tabloid newspaper Bild, and worth around 800 million euros ($757 million), based on Monday's closing price of the notoriously illiquid share.

KirchBeteiligung has until August to sell the stake before it falls to Deutsche Bank as collateral for a 720 million euro loan Kirch has failed to repay.

The Formula One business KirchBeteiligung also owns is set to be taken over by banks BayernLB, Lehman Brothers and J.P. Morgan, which between them lent Kirch $1.6 billion to acquire the racing car circuit.

Taurus holds no significant assets other than the three now insolvent Kirch units.

Investment bank UBS Warburg, hired by KirchMedia's insolvency administrators to seek buyers for its assets, has asked potential bidders for the company or its assets to file their offers by Tuesday.