Television Production company sale on "repeat"

Tinopolis, the independent Welsh media company specialising in the production of TV programmes like Crufts and Question Time, amongst others, is reported to be up for sale. Again.

In 2014 the company was linked to a number of corporate buyers, including Entertainment One, the company producing Peppa Pig, as well as MSD Capital, the venture capital firm chaired by Michael Dell, and had a price tag of between GBP 250 and GBP 300m. At the time it was reported that an offer was made by MSD Capital but was rejected by Tinopolis’ owners, which include Vitruivan Partners, the UK private equity firm that backed the management in delisting the company from the UK AIM market in 2008.

As with in 2014, one name being linked to Tinopolis is ITV, a company that has been a serial acquiror of independent production companies since Adam Crozier took over as CEO.

Tinopolis itself has been no stranger to acqusitions, having acquired a number of companies both in the UK and the US, which has resulted in its owning the rights to programmes such Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen in the US. Independent media companies are becoming increasingly rare, thus the press are valuing any deal for Tinopolis to be circa GBP 300m and the company will likely attract both corporate and private equity suitors.