Constantin Film's Bernd Eichinger has stepped down from his position as board chairman to concentrate his energies on production - the company's in-house output having more than doubled in the last year.

In a statement, Eichinger declared: "In the past few months I had already increasingly withdrawn from the management of Constantin Film AG and passed these duties to my four board colleagues [Thomas Peter Friedl, Jochen Kamlah, Martin Moszkowicz and Daniel Wiest].After the positive experiences we have now decided as the next step for the complete separation of my double activity. This step allows me to be able to concentrate again fully on the focus of all our activities: on our films".

Following the move, Wiest, board member responsible for finances and investor relations has been appointed as the executive board's spokesperson.

Meanwhile, EM.TV & Merchandising's board chairman Thomas Haffa asked to be relieved of his function as Constantin's supervisory board chairman and will be succeeded by Fred Kogel, deputy chairman of Kirch Media. "My main focus is concentrated in bringing EM.TV back on course", Haffa explained. He will remain an ordinary member of the company's supervisory board.

In response to recent speculation about possible changes to its shareholder structure, Constantin, which reported an increase in turnover to $104.4m (Euros 119.3m) and a $5.8m (Euros 6.6m) EBIT, said that the three main shareholders - Eichinger, Kirch Beteiligungs GmbH and EM.TV & Merchandising - have no plans to sell any of their shares, but continue to have them pooled in the holding company Constantin Holding.