Ex-Endemol exec Lachkar to put Shine into France

The Shine Group is close to recruiting Thierry Lachkar as the boss of a new French division, Shine France. Lachkar, a former senior executive at Endemol France is understood to have agreed terms on a deal and is expected to take up his new position this summer and start lining up the first projects from the French division this autumn.

Sources said Lachkar has agreed to the terms of a deal with Shine and that is expected to be wrapped up within days. A Shine spokesman said: “We can confirm that we (Shine Group) are in exclusive negotiations with Thierry Lachkar concerning a possible role in the group’s European expansions. These negotiations are ongoing.”

Lachkar was chief international development and creative officer at Endemol France and was on the company’s executive board before departing earlier this year amid a top level reshuffle.

Shine is expanding aggressively into international markets. It acquired Nordic production group Metronome yesterday, as first reported on TBIvision, and announced new divisions in Germany and Australia earlier this year. As well as France, the company is understood to be keen to break into Italian, Spanish and other international markets.

It has proved a busy year for Shine. The German launch was announced in late March and the entity will begin operations in July, under the stewardship of Axel Kuehn, formerly of RTL.That marked Shine’s first expansion into mainland Europe and was followed in early April, by the news that Mark and Carl Fennessy had been poached from FremantleMedia Australia to become joint CEOs of another new division, Shine Australia.