Zinc Media Regulatory News (ZIN)

16 Jan 2006 07:01

Ten Alps PLC16 January 2006 Ten Alps plc: Acquisition announcement Date: 16 January 2006 Acquisition of TV production company Hart Davies (formerly Hart/Ryan) TV production group Ten Alps PLC ('Ten Alps') today announces the acquisition offactual TV production company Hart Davies TV Limited ('Hart Davies' or the 'Company'), an established producer of observational documentary series andfactual programming for broadcasters such as the BBC, Channel 4, '5', theDiscovery Channel and others, for a maximum cash consideration of approximately£1.05m. Current productions are Amsterdam Vice, a ten-part series for Discovery Channel,The List, a two hour series on heart transplants for Channel 4, and Baby Race, a3 x 50 formatted series for Channel 4 following 30 single women trying to havebabies over a year. There is a significant development slate, as well as alibrary of over 40 hours of quality factual programming in which Hart Davies hassignificant rights ownership. The executive producers of Hart Davies, David Hart and Guy Davies, have signednew service contracts with the Company to March 2008, as has Head of ProductionSarah Hodgson. Founded in 1992, Hart Davies formerly traded as Hart/Ryan Productions and asInsight TV. The Company is a producer of award-winning factual programming andit won a BAFTA for its Channel 4 series The Trust, the Michael Powell Award forterrorist docudrama Gas Attack, the Broadcast Award for True Stories: Orphans ofWar, and three Indie awards for Channel 4's Traitor King and Cutting Edge: Shopsand Robbers. Financials and Terms In the 16-month period to November 2005, Hart Davies made pre-tax profit of£74,000 on turnover of £1,571,000. Ten Alps acquired the entire issued sharecapital of the Company on 13 January 2006 for an initial consideration of£190,000 in cash, against net assets of at least £70,000. Maximum further acquisition payments totalling £962,500 will be made, in cash orshares at Ten Alps' discretion, if pre-tax profit of £700,000 is achieved byHart Davies in the period to March 2008. The profit target will be divided over2 earnout periods. Ten Alps Chief Executive Alex Connock said: "This is a welcome expansion of TenAlps' factual production capability. We are delighted to be able to work withtwo producers as expert in observational documentary, amongst other genres, asDavid Hart and Guy Davies. Plus, as it happens, their name shortens to HDTV, which is the exciting new TVphenomenon for 2006 - from filmmakers shooting in the Sahara to people buyingplasmas at John Lewis." David Hart and Guy Davies said: "This a fantastic opportunity for us, and ourteam - now under the HDTV name. Ten Alps is a company that really understandsquality factual television, and we're delighted to join the existing strongbrands within the group. We're really excited by the opportunities this dealoffers, and we really look forward to building on our success." Ten Alps already owns documentary production companies Brook Lapping, Blakewayand 3BM TV and factual-entertainment producer Ten Alps TV. The Ten Alps grouphas an excellent creative reputation in factual TV, and strong internationalsales. Website: www.tenalps.com Hart Davies production history Hart Davies was formerly known as Hart/Ryan Productions Ltd. The Company wasformed by David Hart and Michael Ryan in 1994, and established a strongreputation. Guy Davies joined in 1997 from Folio Productions. Michael Ryan leftthe Company in 1999 and retired. The Company produces high quality documentary series, one-offs to the mainBritish documentary strands and occasional dramas, and has won top awards. Thefirst production Cutting Edge: Shops and Robbers won the Indie Award and theCompany has grown its production slate and clients so that it has now madeprogrammes for BBC One, Two and Four, ITV, Channel 4, 5, NHK Japan, andDiscovery. Among programmes produced have been The Trust, a five part series made overthree years inside one of the biggest hospitals in the NHS which won the BAFTAfor Best Factual Series and the Grierson Documentary Award; Mersey Blues, theacclaimed documentary series for BBC2 inside Merseyside Police; The Traitor King- the Indie award-winning two part investigation of Edward VIII for C4; andOrphans of War for Channel 4's True Stories which won the Broadcast Award. Withits drama debut, the Company picked up the prestigious Michael Powell Award forBest British Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and anIndependent British Film Award for the innovative and unsettling piece imagininga terrorist attack in Glasgow, Gas Attack. Hart Davies has made many other high profile projects including Behind The Crimewhich ran for three series, the popular BBC One hits Lakesiders and morerecently Trouble In Store, and in 2004 the return of Alan Whicker in the muchacclaimed two parter Whicker's War. CVs David Hart David Hart made his name in current affairs series including Panorama, 24 Hoursand This Week. He joined Granada in 1972 and was a Producer/Director on theaward winning World in Action. He went on to make several programmes forGranada's documentary department, including The Spanish Civil War and the dramadocumentary Power Struggle. In 1992 he left Granada and set up Hart/Ryan Productions with Mike Ryan. Theymade a number of successful programmes for Channel 4 including the award-winning Shops and Robbers and Traitor King. He then made the documentaryseries Mersey Blues for BBC 2. Following these he produced and co-directed Orphans of War, winner of theBroadcast Documentary Award, executive produced Gas Attack, winner of theMichael Powell award as well as Best Production award at The British IndependentFilm Awards. He then series produced Sinatra - Good Guy: Bad Guy and was theexecutive producer for The Trust -winner of the BAFTA, best documentary seriesaward for 2002. As well as running the Company, David Hart has been involved in most of Hart/Ryan's productions over the last 13 years, either as a director, producer,series producer or executive producer. Guy Davies Guy Davies is an Executive Producer who has been with the Company since 1997.Joining as a producer/director, he has series produced many of the Company'sprojects, running the creative team with David Hart, and has been ExecutiveProducer since 1999. Guy series produced The BAFTA award winning series TheTrust and among his credits as Executive Producer are Whicker's War (C4),Whitney Houston: The True Story (C4), City of Sin (C4), Casualties of Peace(C4), Behind The Crime (C4) Pagans of the Roman Empire (C4) and more recentlyTrouble In Store (BBC ONE), Baby Race (C4), The Truth About Diana Ross (5); TheList (C4), and Amsterdam Vice for Discovery. Guy series produced many other projects including Coppers (a history of thepolice for C4), Lakesiders for BBC One, The Investigators for BBC One, andPostcards from The Edge for C4, and he worked on further series withphotojournalist Nick Danziger as producer/director. With Folio Productions Guywas a producer for Cutting Edge and series editor of Frontline. From 1990 to1994 he was at Channel 4, and prior to that at the Arts Council. Enquiries Ten Alps PLCwww.tenalps.com Nitil Patel, Finance Director,Ten Alps Plc07990 578 356 Peter BinnsBinns & Co PR Ltdpeter.binns@binnspr.co.uk020 7786 9600 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange