Meinl European Land (MEL) has hired investment bank Merrill Lynch to come up with comprehensive measures to revamp the company's corporate structure, strategy and capital markets standards. The Jersey-registered property company said it will pay particular attention to corporate facts, tax legislation and existing contractual obligations, and added that the main aim of its structural review 'is to promote MEL's long-term development as leading property company in Central and Eastern Europe.' The review will take a few months, the company added.
Meinl European Land (MEL) has hired investment bank Merrill Lynch to come up with comprehensive measures to revamp the company's corporate structure, strategy and capital markets standards. The Jersey-registered property company said it will pay particular attention to corporate facts, tax legislation and existing contractual obligations, and added that the main aim of its structural review 'is to promote MEL's long-term development as leading property company in Central and Eastern Europe.' The review will take a few months, the company added.
The results of the evaluation will be disclosed 'promptly', MEL said in a statement. The measures may include 'changes of the entire corporate structure, strengthening of the operative management and the board, evaluating dividend payments, and sounding out strategic options and partnerships.'
MEL is under investigation by the Austrian securities regulator FMA, which is studying whether the company violated the country's stock exchange laws by failing to disclose on time that it had bought back about 52 million of its own certificates in the first half of 2007. MEL said that it is supporting the investigation and is confident that this will show that the company 'has always fully complied with all laws and regulations'.
