Fremantle Buys Asacha Media Group In Major European M&A Deal & Has Now Spent More Than $216M In 2024

Max Goldbart
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

In the latest major M&A deal to hit Europe, Fremantle has acquired Asacha Media Group, the growing owner of Death in Paradise producer Red Planet, Arrow Media and Italy’s Stand By Me.

Fremantle owner RTL said the super-indie has spent more than €200M ($216M) on Asacha plus 80% of Singapore’s Beach House Pictures since the start of this year and is now well on track to reach its lofty €3B ($3.2B) revenue target by 2025. RTL didn’t break down how much Asacha and Beach House cost individually.

More from Deadline

Asacha was only founded in 2020 but has since acquired eight labels and rapidly expanded its footprint across Europe.

The deal sees Fremantle acquire the group from Asacha’s founding partners, managers and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.

Following the acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, Asacha will continue to be run by Co-Founder and Group CEO Gaspard de Chavagnac who will report to Fremantle Europe boss Andrea Scrosati. De Chavagnac will continue to be supported by Marina Williams as Chief Content Officer of Asacha.

Scrosati said: “Fremantle is proud to be investing and partnering with the very best international creative talent. Gaspard de Chavagnac, Marina Williams, and Marc-Antoine d’Halluin and the incredible producers and talents that have created Asacha certainly fall into this category, and we are delighted they have chosen to join the Fremantle family. They have built an impressive portfolio of market-leading labels, each of which perfectly complements our existing businesses in each of their markets.”

De Chavagnac added: “Fremantle will bring all its expertise and resources in premium content development and distribution, to accelerate the growth of our fantastic creative labels. I am very excited to pursue this exciting journey.”

Headquartered in Paris, Asacha has since 2020 been building a mini production empire and now owns France’s Kabo Family, Mintee and Srab Films, Italy’s Picomedia and Stand By Me, and UK triple Arrow Media, Red Planet and Wag.

Shows and movies include Death in Paradise, Saint Omer, Don’t Pick up the Phone, Magic of Disney‘s Animal Kingdom and General Men across wide slates in both scripted and unscripted.

Fremantle said its existing indies in the regions in which Asacha operates, such as Talkback, 72 Films and Lux Vide, will be unaffected.

Fremantle had a quiet M&A year in 2023 compared to its mega 2022 splurge of $270M but this signals the outfit’s intent for the coming year as it continues to build towards the €3B revenue target.

Earlier this month, it acquired Beach House and it also recently invested in the new British indie run by former Channel 4 entertainment boss Phil Harris. In 2022, it bought the likes of Normal People outfit Element Pictures, docs producer 72 Films and veteran Italian company Lux Vide.

Asacha’s most recent buy was Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom maker Arrow and, before that, Oscar-nominated Les Misérables producer SRAB.

Advising for Asacha Media Group and Oaktree has been Lazard and Mayer Brown, and for Fremantle has been CMS.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.