Mediapro is seriously considering going to the Solvency Fund of 10,000 million managed by the State Industrial Participation Company (Sepi) to achieve the “transitional financial support” it needs to “solve the situation that the pandemic has generated throughout the economy,” sources explain. knowledgeable about the process. Thus, the production company founded by Jaume Roures is studying requesting a public bailout less than three years after receiving an injection of 552 million euros and despite having closed 2019 with its own funds (share capital, reserves and results) of more than 922 million .
The Chinese group Orient Hontai subscribed in June 2018 a capital increase for 522 million, which allowed it to acquire 53% of the Mediapro group, while the historical partners made a monetary contribution of 30 million euros. The operation gave rise to the birth of Joye as the production company’s new holding company.
Although the group closed 2019 in good financial health, a liquidity of 197 million euros between cash (144 million) and undrawn debt, and that the bulk of its business has not been affected by the pandemic, the truth is that the The company acknowledges problems in dealing with the payment of its debt and sports rights, whose invoice has been reduced and
Moody’s pointed out at the beginning of the year that the company was experiencing liquidity problems
The Mediapro holding company closed 2019 with a net debt of 838.9 million euros, twice as much as a year earlier, and commitments for sports rights of 4,131 million euros. The company was confident in its cash generation capacity to meet these commitments, but this has been damaged by the pandemic, so it has set to work to restructure its financial situation and accommodate it to the current context. At this point, Moody’s warned at the beginning of the year of the producer’s liquidity problems.
Mediapro has refused to talk about specific figures, but media outlets such as OK Diario point out that the Catalan group is considering asking the Government for aid of 300 million euros. At this point, it should be noted that one of the conditions to go to the Solvency Fund is that the requested amount is more than 25 million euros and that . In this case, if the rescue is requested through Mediaproduction, it could be a maximum of 370 million, which are the own funds or assets with which it closed 2019, but if it is proposed through the Joye holding company, it could exceed 900 million. , although it is ruled out that these levels will be reached.
strategic company
Sources from the sector point out that Mediapro meets all the conditions to be rescued by the State since its crisis is not a business model, but a temporary one due to the pandemic, it was profitable in 2019 and it is “a strategic company”. Thus, according to these sources, the holding company, which in March approved an ERTE for 1,200 workers, would be strategic because it employs 5,000 people in Spain and some 3,000 in the rest of the world in the four sectors in which it operates: audiovisual, sports rights , content and technological or digital development. Despite the fact that the competitions were initially paralyzed, the demand for content is growing.
Regarding profitability, Joye closed 2019 with a net loss of 39 million, four times that of a year earlier, although it had a positive EBITDA of 243 million and an operating result of 95.5 million. The holding company’s revenue rose 57% to 1.7 billion. For its part, the subsidiary Mediaduccion earned 233 million in 2019 and Imagina left the losses behind with a profit of 169.6 million.
Facebook Comments
Disqus