History of Constantin Film

[Robert Tolhurst]

From German Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Film

 

 

 

 

Foundation

"Constantin Film Distribution GmbH" was founded in Frankfurt.on 1 April 1950 by the German film businessman Waldfried Barthel and the Danish film businessman Preben Philipsen. The name was chosen in honor of Philipsens father Constantin Philipsen, who had also been active as a film businessman. After five years as chairman(?), Philipsen retired from the company in 1955. Boss(?) Waldfried Barthel was assisted in the management of the company from 1955 to 1960 by his wife Ingeborg as executive director. From 1959 to 1963, the deputy CEO and head of production Gerhard F. Hummel had an important influence on the company, which had moved its headquarters to Munich in 1957. In 1963,  Manfred Barthel (unrelated to Waldfried Barthel) took over production at Constantin.

On 21 December 1964, the company was renamed "Constantin Film GmbH" . Main board director Barthel sold sixty percent of the capital to the Bertelsmann Group on July 1, 1965. Bertelsmann appointed Herbert Schmidt as co-CEO with Manfred Barthel. Because of the looming cinema crisis, Bertelsmann sold its stake at the end of 1970. Barthel bought 100% and thus got into financial difficulties. In 1975 he sold first fifty percent, and in 1976, the rest, to the Hagen holding company Hellmuth Gierse. In October 1977, that company's   CEO, Karl-Heinz Böllinghaus, declared the insolvency of "Constantin Film GmbH"  at the Local Court in Munich.

In the 1950s, the "old" Constantin distributed mainly productions by United Artists , as well as a variety of entertainment films. In the sixties, Constantin made a name for itself with the Edgar Wallace and Karl May films.

New beginning

In 1978, film producer Bernd Eichinger bought out a large part of the insolvent estate of Constantin Film, and in 1979 became shareholder and CEO of what was now "Neue Constantin Film GmbH". In 1983,  a film production company was also added to the film distribution business. From 1986 the Kirch group also became a shareholder. In 1992, KIrch acquired the majority holding in the Austrian subsidiary. In 2002 KIrch gave its share to the former minority owner - an Austrian private foundation, which has since controlled Constantin Austria , Austria's largest cinema operator and film distributor. The main Constantin company went public as "Constantin Film AG" in 1999. Eichinger had a significant share of the new company's success, he had been CEO from 1979 to flotation in 1999, from 1999-2001 he was CEO, from early 2003 until mid-2006 non-executive chairman and then non-executive vice-chairman until his death on January 24, 2011.

In May 2002, the Swiss media holding company "Highlight Communications AG", headed by Bernhard Burgener , acquired around about 23 percent of Constantin Film. Highlight Holding became the largest single shareholder with around 41% of the equity by further purchases. In mid-2003 Highlight issued submitted a tender offer to the remaining shareholders, meaning that Highlight had a 58% stake by end 2003. In January 2006 Highlight also took over the share stake held by Bernd Eichinger was and has had an 90% stake in Constantin Film.

Since 1 January 2009,  director and producer Oliver Berben has been one of several executive board members of Constantin Film, responsible for national and international TV and cinema business. On January 26, 2009 Fred Kogel (CEO to 31 December 2008) became non-executive chairman, which he had already been from 2001 to 2003. The Supervisory Board Chairman Bernhard Burgener took over as CEO.

At the AGM on 21 April 2009, a 100% acquisition by "Highlight Communications AG" was adopted as part of a so-called squeeze-out decision, under which the last minority independent shareholders were bought out by Highlight Communications. ^[4] With effect from October 7, 2009 the Frankfurt Stock Exchange listing was cancelled and the company went private.