MEDIAWAN launches the big moves with the acquisition of AB Group – Le Figaro

(AOF) – Nine months after its ipo – the 22 last April, the group rose to 250 million euros – Mediawan launched this morning the big moves to achieve its initial acquisition. Investment company based in the form of a SPAC (investment vehicle side and dedicated to a specific sector) by Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton, Mediawan going to spend 270 million euros to put the hand on Group AB. The latter, held at the height of 33.5% by TF1, is a production and distribution company for audio and video.

the Owner of the channels RTL9, or AB3, AB Group has also catalogued a series of French research Section, Alice Nevers, Friends or even Gears. These productions are, or have been the lovely days of TF1, but also on the canal+Channel.

The operation would be financed, up to a maximum amount of 130 million euros, by bank loan. The balance of the acquisition price of the shares of AB Group will be funded by a levy on the funds raised at the time of the ipo of Mediawan and transferred since then on account of secure deposit. At the end of the acquisition, Pierre-Antoine Capton will continue to occupy the post of director general and chairman of the management board of Mediawan and will be appointed president of AB Group. Orla Noonan will continue to exercise the functions of director-general of AB Group and join also the strategic committee of Mediawan.

Mediawan wants to create a european group of content, such as Vivendi

With Group AB, Mediawan nourishes the proposal to create a european group of contents, which is present on the entire value chain of the audiovisual sector, the realization-production and distribution. With this first transaction, the SPAC set his sights on a group that is very present in French-speaking Europe (Benelux in particular) and Africa.

The ambition of Mediawan reminds one of another group of French media, Vivendi, which also seeks to create a platform for aggregating content and control the distribution on all channels (television, telecom networks). It is this project that underlies the recent rise of Vivendi in the capital of Mediaset. In geographical terms, Vivendi focuses rather on the Southern Europe (Italy and Spain) but also Africa.

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