Endemol planning to float in London
THE production firm behind the Big Brother series is preparing for a £2bn flotation on the London Stock Exchange, it was reported today.
Shares in Endemol could be offered to investors by the end of the summer, according to the Sunday Express.
Endemol is currently owned by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica which is understood to have instructed advisers Merrill Lynch to prepare for a listing.
Executives are thought to favour a flotation because it would value Endemol at a higher price than a straight-forward sale, even though a number of private equity firms have been linked with a bid over the past year.
In addition to Big Brother, Netherlands-based Endemol was the company that brought Fame Academy, Ready Steady Cook and Ground Force to television screens in the UK.
Endemol, which employs 3,300 full-time staff, has effectively been up for sale since last year when Telefonica confirmed that it viewed the company as a non-core asset.
Telefonica paid €5.2bn (£3.6bn) for the company in 2000 but has been selling surplus businesses to concentrate on its main telecoms operations.
Endemol chief executive Joaquin Agut reportedly met executives of Time Warner in New York last summer, but balked at the £1.4bn that the US media giant was only prepared to put on the table.
A string of private equity groups are also understood to have looked at the company with Apax, Candover and Cinven all linked to a possible bid.
Endemol has subsidiaries and joint ventures in 22 countries, including the US and Latin America, and generated revenues of €914m (£629.9m) in 2003.
According to the Express, a flotation in London would trigger a series of windfall payments for senior managers, including the chairman of the UK arm Peter Bazalgette.
He is understood to have amassed a large amount of shares and share options in Endemol when it merged with his own company, Bazal.
No one at the company was available for comment today.
