ITV logo on building in Manchester
British television group ITV climbs on the stock market on Monday after press reports in the United Kingdom that it could be the target of a takeover bid by a team led by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and potentially formed from TF1.
ITV is a private television group which also has a production studio, ITV Studios, behind the show “The Voice: La plus belle voix” in France.
According to Sky News, CVC plans to partner with a European broadcaster, such as TF1, to buy and then split ITV. CVC would take over ITV Studios while television broadcasting would return to TF1.
Contacted Monday by Reuters, TF1 declined to comment. “Our principle is not to communicate on market rumors,” declared a representative of the group. TF1's main shareholder, Bouygues, also refused to comment.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, TF1 shares fell 0.62% to 7.13 euros at 12:00 GMT when the SBF 120 lost 0.15% at the same time.
According to Sky News, the French audiovisual group Mediawan, founded by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Matthieu Pigasse and Xavier Niel and backed by the private equity giant KKR, is also interested in ITV Studios, as is the British company All3Media, owned by RedBird Capital.
Contacted, Mediawan did not immediately respond.
ITV declined to comment. CVC did not immediately respond.
In London, ITV shares rose more than 8% at midday to 71.2 pence per share, bringing the group's market capitalization to more than 2.5 billion pounds.
ITV has seen its share price fall 40% over the past three years due to concerns over advertising spend and the profitability of its ITVX streaming service.
(Written by Samuel Indyk and Sarah Young; French version Florence Loève, edited by Blandine Hénault)
