Banijay, the production house behind such television shows as "Black Mirror" and "Keeping up with the Kardashians," agreed to go public at an implied €7.2b enterprise valuation via Pegasus Entrepreneurs, an Amsterdam-listed SPAC formed by Tikehau Capital and Bernard Arnault.
Why it matters: This would be Europe's largest-ever SPAC merger, for one of reality television's most prolific producers.
Details: The deal, whose equity value is around €4.1b, also includes online sports gambling group Betclic, with the resulting public company to be called FL Entertainment.
- It also comes more than two years after Banijay added significant debt via the €2 billion purchase of Dutch TV production firm Endemol Shine from Apollo Global Management.
What they're saying: "Both the content production and sports betting are globalizing businesses where scale is important and the listing will allow us to grow further and consider more acquisitions." — Banijay's Stéphane Courbit to the FT