28th Apr 2025 10:02
(Alliance News) - Paris-based Banijay Entertainment SASU is considering making a takeover offer for all of ITV PLC or just the television broadcaster's Studios arm, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Banijay has held early talks with London-based ITV, the FT said, citing "two people familiar with the situation". A merger would bring together two of Europe's largest TV production group, the newspaper noted.
ITV and its Studios arm reportedly have attracted bid interest since the start of 2025.
Last month, the Daily Mail said talks between ITV and All3Media had "progressed to a very detailed level". The newspaper at the time said ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall was in discussions with the owners of All3Media, Abu Dhabi-back investment fund RedBird IMI, about a combination that would be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
In January, Reuters had reported that ITV and Redbird IMI were holding "early-stage" talks for a merger of their respective production businesses.
In its 2024 results, released in March, ITV said its Studios division had delivered "record profits" despite the impact of the 2023 US actors and writers strikes and "softer demand from free-to air broadcasters" reducing revenue.
Studios adjusted Ebita increased 4.5% to GBP299 million from GBP286 million, while revenue in the division fell 6.1% to GBP2.04 billion from GBP2.17 billion in 2023.
For ITV as a whole, pretax profit more than doubled to GBP521 million in 2024 from GBP193 million in 2023. Adjusted pretax profit climbed 19% to GBP472 million from GBP396 million.
ITV shares were down 3.2% to 78.25 pence early Monday in London, giving the company a market capitalisation of GBP2.93 billion. The stock remains up 6.4% so far in 2025.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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