Endemol Shine suitor Liberty Global withdraws from bidding - report
23 SEP 2018
Endemol Shine suitor Liberty Global [NASDAQ:LBTYA] has withdrawn from the bidding for the Netherlands-based television production company, The Irish Independent on Sunday reported. The newspaper cited a Bloomberg report, which cited people with knowledge of the matter for the information.
Endemol Shine has been put up for sale by its owners Twenty-First Century Fox [NASDAQ:FOXA] and the private equity firm Apollo Global Management [NYSE:APO].
The deadline for second-round offers for Endemol is within weeks, according to the sources.
Interested parties include the UK-based broadcaster ITV [LON:ITV] and the French content production company Banijay Group, the sources said.
Endemol is looking for a sale price exceeding EUR 2.5bn (USD 2.94bn), but the company’s debt of more than USD 1.6bn and concerns about the future prospects of established reality television shows that Endemol is known for may make achieving that valuation difficult, according to the sources cited by the report.
The California-based artist management company Endeavour (formerly William Morris Endeavour) is keeping an eye on Endemol and may be interested depending on the price, according to one of the people cited by the report.
Spokespersons for Endemol, Banijay, Endeavour and ITV refused to comment, the item said.
Background:
The UK-based television production company All3Media, which is backed by Liberty Global, was also mentioned by a Sunday Times report on 16 September as a potential bidder for Endemol. Banijay has backing from the French media group Vivendi [EPA:VIV], the item said.
Endeavour’s shareholders include the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and the Japanese technology group Softbank [TYO:9984], as previously reported.
The report appeared in the Sunday Business section of the print edition of The Irish Independent on 23 September.