Mediawan, the audiovisual production company of the trio Capton-Niel-Pigasse, changes size : its founders announced Monday several operations aiming to make a european champion, including the launch of a TAKEOVER bid to obtain control of the group, and a series of acquisitions, including that of Ls Studios. “The purpose of the big bang is very simple, create the european leader in content by making a succession of operations is very important,” said the Agence France-Presse Matthieu Pigasse, who founded Mediawan in 2015 with the hellion telecom Xavier Niel and television producer.
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For a start, the trio says he has created a new structure, called Mediawan Alliance. Supported by the mutual MACSF and the investment fund KKR, this new company is going to launch an OPA (public purchase offer) on the group Mediawan, and will also obtain, via KKR, a 25% interest in the German producer, Leonine.
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The TAKEOVER offer is expected to be launched in July, at a cost of 12 euros per share, representing a premium of 42% compared to Friday’s closing, which values the company at around 400 million euros. The success threshold is set at 55% of the capital, knowing that the founders and MACSF already control a whole 27 % of the units. “Until now, we [the three founders, ED] had 20 % of the shares of Mediawan and not exclusive control. If the public offer succeeds, this will be the case “, argued Xavier Niel.
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But this TAKEOVER bid is only an introduction to the three partners, who have already made Mediawan a champion of the production of fiction tv in France, with the stroke of acquisitions, including that of the AB group in 2017, and then some of the activities of Europacorp (the group of Luc Besson) and the producer of the Bracelets red in 2018, before you put a foot in Italy in early 2019 by purchasing Palomar, the producer of Commissioner Montalbano, and of the series the Name of the rose.
Mediawan double size
In fact, they announced Monday several new acquisitions. First of all, Mediawan Alliance will buy back at Pierre-Antoine Capton his own production company called Third Eye, which produces emissions of so-called flows, as the magazine France 5, C to you, The Grand Chessboard (France 2) or Zemmour and Naulleau (Paris First). At the same time, Mediawan has made a firm offer of the Lagardère group for its subsidiary, audiovisual production Lagardère Studios, Arnaud Lagardère was looking to sell for a while.
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Mediawan puts on the table, up to 100 million euros to buy back this subsidiary company is present in 4 countries (France, Finland, Spain and the netherlands) and to the rich catalog, which is the series Josephine guardian angel, on TF1, in The Eddy, the last creation of Damien Chazelle, and the documentary Gregory, both released on Netflix. Finally, Mediawan has ” acquired a majority stake in a Good Mood “, a tv producer Spanish, especially now in the playoffs, for a sum not specified.
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These various operations, which are expected to be finalised by September-October (some require the green light from the competition authorities) will allow Mediawan to double in size and to draw new axes of growth : “Mediawan opens a new activity, the production of emission of flow, and we’ll be able to develop co-productions at the european level “, argued Pierre-Antoine Capton. The group will be able to create from Paris, content with high added value and support the talents in their international developments “, he adds.
With these major maneuvers, race at the consolidation is accelerating in the sector of the production of tv, after announcing the end of 2019 the redemption of Endemol Shine by another French champion, Banijay, the group of Stéphane Courbit. And the crisis of the Covid-19 does not seem to have dampened the ambitions of the three founders of Mediawan… ” We made more than 20 acquisitions since the creation of Mediawan, our desire is to continue in this direction. It is worn by the application of platforms and our size allows us to provide content for the whole of their country, ” sums up Xavier Niel.
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