Bertelsmann, Europe’s biggest consumer media group, has earmarked nearly €6 billion (£4.1 billion) for acquisitions by the end of the decade as it tries to build up new-media activities.

The company behind the long-running soap The Bill, the author Dan Brown and the singer Justin Timberlake, said that its debts would reduce sufficiently by the end of this year for it to spend €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion a year on deals.

Thomas Rabe, the group’s chief financial officer, also said that Bertelsmann would contribute €500 million to a €1 billion venture fund, supported by the private equity arms of Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, aiming at investments primarily in Asia and America.

Gunther Thielen, the company’s outgoing chief executive, said that there were no obvious gaps in Bertelsmann’s existing divisions, which range from RTL in television to Random House in books. However, the company wanted to target fresh assets that ultimately it could integrate.

When pressed to clarify target areas, he said that it was difficult to identify which new-media businesses would be sustainable: “Those who are too early will be punished and so will those who are too late.”

Bertelsmann, of all the big media conglomerates, has had little strategic engagement with the internet, although all its operations have modest new-media spin-offs. His comments herald a change of emphasis, which will emerge as Harmut Ostrowski, his successor, takes over from next year.

The private company’s debt soared after the €4.5 billion purchase of a 25.1 per cent stake held by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, which required the company to sell its €1.6 billion music publishing business to Vivendi. Net debt peaked at €6.4 billion in the summer, but has since dropped to €4.6 billion at the year-end.

Net profits for 2006 totalled €2.4 billion, up 132 per cent, in a figure boosted by the asset sales. Operating profits were 16 per cent ahead to €1.87 billion, fuelled by a 10.4 per cent rise in income to €835 million in its largest division, RTL, the owner of the British broadcaster Five. Only the BMG music division suffered a down-turn, with income €4 million lower at €173 million. Resilience in music publishing offset weakness in the Sony-BMG recorded music joint venture.

Mr Rabe said that the company was on track to cut its borrowings to its target level of 2.3 times underlying earnings by the end of 2007, at which point acquisitions could restart.

The company expects to generate €2 billion in free cash in a typical year, and could use €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion of its own money to spend on acquisitions.

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