ITV Completes Acquisition of Natural History TV Producer Plimsoll for $127 Million

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster ITV has completed its acquisition of leading natural history program producer Plimsoll Productions by taking a majority 79.5% stake.The deal, which was revealed by Variety last week, values Plimsoll at £131 million ($161 million) and ITV will pay £104 million ($127 million) in cash for the stake.Founded in Bristol in 2013, the BAFTA, Emmy and Academy award winning Plimsoll has produced hundreds of hours of content including “Tiny World” and “Giant World” for Apple+; “Hostile Planet” and “Supernatural Planet” for Disney; “Night on Earth” and “Animal” for Netflix and the upcoming series, “A Year on Planet Earth” for ITV, Tencent in China, Fox Nation in the U.S.

and ARD Group in Germany. Under the leadership of founder Grant Mansfield, the Plimsoll team includes chief creative officer Martha Holmes, creative director Tom Hugh-Jones, Karen Plumb as head of factual entertainment; and Richard Klein, former head of ITV Factual, and head of documentaries at the BBC.

Following the transaction, Mansfield and his team will continue to manage the business and work alongside ITV Studios MD Julian Bellamy, director of unscripted, U.K., Angela Jain, and their team.ITV will acquire the stake from private equity firm LDC, Mansfield and other existing Plimsoll shareholders.

The cash consideration includes £85.5 million payable to the existing shareholders and the repayment of Plimsoll’s financial net indebtedness at completion, expected to be approximately £17.6 million.The remaining 20.5% of share capital will be held by Grant Mansfield and other members of the management team and strategic investors of Plimsoll.