Ossy Bubbling Over Deal With Soap Billionaire

He’s saying nothing until the deal is done but Ossy Hoppe has confirmed he’s negotiating the possible sale of 51 percent of his Wizard Promotions to two members of one of Germany’s richest families.

"We’ve exchanged letters of intent but I’m not talking about any deals until the ink’s dry on the contract," he told Pollstar.

That could be as early as March 5th, as Hoppe also confirmed his next meeting with the father and son partnership of Gunter and Daniel Reimann-Dubbers, part of the wealthy Reimann family, has been scheduled for that day.

The Reimanns are based in Heidelberg, and Bild Zeitung says it is one of the 10 richest families in Germany.

The family owns the Benckiser GmbH group, which markets products ranging from washing powders like Calgon and scents and aftershaves such as Joop, Jil, Sander and Davidoff.

Sixty percent of the shares are owned by Dr. Albert Reimann and Paula Reimann, with other family members – including Gunter and Daniel Reimann – holding the other 40 percent.

Albert Reimann-Dubbers represents the family at board meetings, and the company’s most recently published figures show it’s making euro 50 million a year profit on a euro 2.3 billion turnover. Across its various divisions, the group has about 9,500 employees.

German records estimated the Reimann family wealth at about 1 billion euros in 1996. But six years later that figure was revised to around euro 4.6 billion.

"The great thing about it is that we’ll keep our independence and have some very wealthy partners, which opens up different possibilities to promote more shows and make more offers than before," Hoppe said.

The tours Wizard Promotions currently has in the diary include Shakira, Zucchero, Sting (with MLK), Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Rickie Lee Jones, Journey and a Frankfurt show with Lionel Richie.