Exclusive: Private equity & trade buyers circle Asacha Media as potential sale explored

Beyond Paradise

Private equity companies and a clutch of trade buyers are understood to be circling Asacha Media Group, the fast-growing outfit behind See No Evil producer Arrow Media and Beyond Paradise firm Red Planet Pictures.

The company has appointed French bank Lazard to explore its options and a full or partial sale is now being considered, TBI understands, alongside refinancing.

Talks are at an exploratory stage, with Asacha having initially started looking at options earlier this summer but expanding the scope to include a potential sale after the profitable company attracted broader interest.

En Famille

Asacha is one of the few mid-sized production groups operating across Europe following a wave of consolidation.

It has eight companies to its name, which produce shows ranging from returnable series such as Death In Paradise for the BBC and France Télévisions, to Amazon’s Mixte, M6’s En Famille and Magic Of Disney’s Animal Kingdom for National Geographic and Disney+.

Growth spurt

The group was founded in 2020 by Endemol Shine alum Marina Williams and former Zodiak Media execs de Chavagnac and Marc-Antoine d’Halluin, with the backing of US-based Oaktree Capital Management.

It launched with majority stakes in Italian duo Picomedia and Stand By Me, alongside French production company Mintee Studio.

Seven Days On Mars

It then acquired UK factual producer and distributor WAG Entertainment, UK-based Red Planet and France’s Kabo Family all in 2021, followed by Srab Films a year ago.

The Srab deal came seven months after Asacha secured a €41m ($47m) investment from asset management firm Tikehau Capital to fuel additional growth, with the deal for UK outfit Arrow revealed this summer.

In announcing the Arrow deal last month, Asacha said it is aiming to double the size of the business by 2026 and highlighted that the acquisition made it “a major player in English language factual across key markets including the US and UK.”

Arrow is behind titles including See No Evil and American Monster for Investigation Discovery, Magic Of Disney’s Animal Kingdom for National Geographic and Disney+ and Brian Cox: Seven Days On Mars for the BBC.

Asacha’s acquisition of Red Planet also handed the group a path into US scripted with Beyond Paradise, the Death In Paradise spin-off that is available on the BBC and BritBox in North America.