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(Sharecast News) - British television network operator ITV has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in Plimsoll Productions, the largest independent producer of natural history programmes in the world.
ITV said on Tuesday that it will make a cash consideration of approximately £103.5m for Plimsoll, valuing the Bristol-based business at an enterprise value of £131.0m.
The FTSE 100-listed firm stated the acquisition was "a further milestone" in its strategy of expanding its international content business, adding that it would further diversify ITV Studios' production base and enable the group to take advantage of the "strong demand" for content across the "ever-popular" natural history and factual genres.
Plimsoll generated underlying earnings of £10.0m in the 12 months to 31 August 2021 and was forecast to deliver EBITDA of around £5.5m in the second half of 2022. The transaction was also expected to be earnings accretive from day one.
The outstanding 20.5% of share capital will be held by founder Grant Mansfield and other members of the management team and strategic investors of Plimsoll. However, ITV noted there were call and put arrangements in place that will give it the option of acquiring the outstanding shares.
ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall said: "Growing ITV Studios with an exciting pipeline of premium programmes is core to our strategy as we further diversify the business by genre, by geography, by customer and grow ahead of the market.
"Through Plimsoll Productions, as a Studio, we can continue to capitalise on the growing demand for natural history and factual programming and I am really pleased to welcome Grant and the team."
As of 0835 BST, ITV shares were up 1.99% at 68.72p.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
