ProSiebenSat.1 sells Red Arrow Studios' US production business to Peter Chernin's The North Road Company

ProSiebenSat.1 sells Red Arrow Studios' US production business to Peter Chernin's The North Road Company

Group continues to focus consistently in the Entertainment segment on successful local programming strategy in the German-speaking region and sells the US production companies that do not contribute to synergies

The US production companies Kinetic Content, Left/Right, 44 Blue, Half Yard Productions and Dorsey Pictures are being sold to Peter Chernin's The North Road Company

European production business remains an important part of the Entertainment business and the Groups strategy

Transaction is based on EV of USD 310 million (EUR 293 million)1; purchase price is subject to customary adjustments and is at around USD 200 million (around EUR 189 million)

Unterf hring, July 6th, 2022. ProSiebenSat.1 Group continues to consistently execute its strategy and sells the US part of Red Arrow Studios production business to Peter Chernin's The North Road Company. This includes the companies Kinetic Content, Left/Right, 44 Blue, Half Yard Productions and Dorsey Pictures. Founded in 2022 by Peter Chernin, The North Road Company is a global, multi-genre studio that produces scripted, documentary, and non-scripted film and TV content across the United States and international markets. The disposal has already been approved by the relevant antitrust authorities and the transaction has now been closed accordingly.

The sale reflects the clear focus of ProSiebenSat.1 Groups entertainment business on producing local, relevant content that is distributed live and on-demand across all platforms in the German-speaking region. For creative ideas and the production of own content, the German-speaking production business of Redseven Entertainment and the European production companies CPL Productions, Endor Productions, Snowman Productions and July August play an important role. They thus make a strong contribution to ProSiebenSat.1s programming strategy. The distribution business Red Arrow Studios International will also remain in the Group. In addition, ProSiebenSat.1 recently launched two new production companies in Germany with Cheerio Entertainment and Flat White Productions to strengthen its own production capacities in the Entertainment segment for the German-speaking market. In addition, the Group had invested in the production company Pyjama Pictures in 2019. At the same time, also Studio71 remains a firm part in the Group's strategy: The global digital media and entertainment company especially addresses young target groups with its video offerings.

Rainer Beaujean, Group CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE: We continuously verify that our companies are fully aligned with our strategy and financial targets. In the entertainment business, this means that we need production companies that understand the cultural characteristics and preferences of our viewers. After all, local content is what sets us apart from the competition. Such production businesses are, besides our German companies, our assets in countries such as Denmark and the UK. It was therefore consequent that we keep these companies within our Group. Our top priority is to link them even more closely with our entertainment platforms. Our US production companies have created successful and popular TV brands in the US market, but do not strengthen our strategy in the German-speaking region in the long term. For North Road, they will make a significant contribution. We wish them all the best for this and thank them very much for our time together.

Red Arrow Studios, ProSiebenSat.1 Groups production network, built up its US business from 2010. During this time, these companies produced successful formats for US stations and platforms: These include, for example, the hit formats Love is Blind (Kinetic Content for Netflix), The Weekly (Left/Right for FX and Hulu), Wahlburgers (44 Blue for A&E), Say Yes to the Dress (Half Yard Productions for TLC) and Building Alaska (Dorsey Pictures for Discovery).

The transaction is based on an enterprise value of USD 310 million (EUR 293 million). The purchase price is subject to customary adjustments and is at around USD 200 million (around EUR 189 million). The now sold US production companies generated an adjusted EBITDA of USD 8 million (EUR 7 million) in full-year 2021. This adjusted EBITDA comprises personnel expenses at around USD 33 million (around EUR 31 million) in connection with especially incentive programs.

The sold US companies had achieved the following key financial figures in full-year 2021:

Revenues (ext.)

EUR 218 million

Adjusted EBITDA (ent.)

EUR 7 million

EBIT (ent.)

EUR -3 million

Adjusted operating free cashflow (ent.)

EUR 11 million

Free cash flow (ent.)

EUR 12 million

Adjusted net income (ent.)

EUR -5 million

1 Currency conversion: EUR 1 = USD 1.06 (as of June 30, 2022)

LINK:	https://en.prosiebensat1.com/en/press/prosiebensat-1-sells-red-arrow-s...
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