John de Mol buys into SBS channels

John de Mol’s Talpa Media and Finnish media company Sanoma have acquired the Dutch and Belgian assets of German broadcast group ProSiebenSat.1. The deal is valued at €1.3 billion.

Talpa and Sanoma have jointly acquired the company’s Dutch channels SBS6, Net5 and Veronica TV, while Sanoma has teamed with media firm Corelio, sports journalist Wouter Vandenhaute and Erik Watte to buy its Belgian channels VT4 and VIJF.

This comes a few months after ProSiebenSat.1, which is owned by private equity groups KKR and Permira, launched a strategic review and decided to put its Dutch and Belgian assets up for sale to reduce its debt.

However, the company ruled out further sales of its Nordic assets. “The Nordic markets continue to be attractive assets for our group. Due to their dynamic growth in advertising and in carriage fees, they are a valuable cornerstone of our revenue diversification strategy,” said ProSiebenSat.1 chief executive Thomas Ebeling.

Meanwhile, Sanoma chief executive Harri-Pekka Kaukonen said: “Sanoma will become a leading media player in the Netherlands and considerably stronger in Belgium.”