Mediapro seeks help. The audiovisual production group has signed Rothschild and Kpmg to restructure its financial debt and is in talks with the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (Sepi) to request access to the solvency support fund for strategic companies, as it has advanced Expansion. Rotschild will be the group’s interlocutor in negotiations with its creditors, while Kpmg will design the company’s new financial plan in the current context of the pandemic.
The audiovisual company has a debt of 920 million euros and seeks temporary support that allows it to face the economic crisis of Covid-19. Along these lines, the request for help from Sepi could amount to 300 million euros. What’s more, the company has contacted its shareholders, as well as some venture capital groups, to inject resources into the company, without having reached an agreement yet.
The company, which has 8,000 workers, 5,000 of them in Spain, faces a loss of income derived from the suspension of sports competitions and the stoppage of audiovisual activities. According to the newspaper, Mediapro’s liabilities are divided into three tranches with different maturities: the first of them is an ordinary loan of 300 million euros, maturing in 2024, from banks such as Citi, Barclays, Bbva, Caixabank or Bankia. The second, of 380 million euros, consists of a loan bullet to be returned in 2025, in which various funds participate, including BlackRock and Goldman Sachs. In the third tranche, for an amount of 180 million euros and maturing in 2025, the opportunistic fund Barings is the one with the largest position.
Rotschild will be the group’s interlocutor in the negotiations with its creditors and Kpmg will design the company’s new financial plan
Likewise, Mediapro has credit lines of 60 million euros and last summer subscribed loans guaranteed by the Official Credit Institute (ICO) for a value of 50 million euros in an operation in which the group’s shareholders also contributed 60 million euros through a capital increase.
Mediapro is one of the main audiovisual groups in the sports industry. Founded in 1994 by Jaume Roures and Tatxo Benet, in 2006 it merged with Globomedia to complement its activity in television and film productions. It is controlled by the Chinese group Orient Hontai Capital and owned by WPP and its founders. In 2018, the company earned close to 2 billion euros. In 2020, it closed with a positive recurring gross operating result (ebitda) and plans to place it at 125 million euros in 2021.
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