Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Sanoma on the acquisition of the Dutch and Belgian SBS TV operations

Amsterdam, 20 April 2011 – International law firm Clifford Chance advised Sanoma on the acquisition of the SBS free-to-air TV assets in the Netherlands and Belgium from ProSiebenSat.1 together with a strong consortium of local partners.

Sanoma has partnered with the Talpa Media Group, the holding company of TV entrepreneur John de Mol for the Dutch transaction.  For the Belgian transaction Sanoma has partnered with Corelio and Wouter Vandenhaute & Eric Watté, the founders of Woestijnvis, a leading TV production company in Flanders.

The enterprise value underlying the entire acquisition is EUR 1,225 million.  The deal is subject to approval of the Dutch competition authority (NMa) with regards to the Netherlands. SBS is the number 2 TV broadcaster in the Netherlands. In the acquisition, Sanoma and Talpa Media will obtain three TV channels (approx. 27% of the TV advertising market) as well as a TV guide business.  In Belgium, SBS operates in the Dutch-speaking market, where it is the number 2 commercial TV player. SBS Belgium includes two TV channels with a  share of the Flanders TV advertising market of approx. 27%.

Gregory Crookes, partner who led the transaction, commented, "The transaction represents a highly successful example of deals being executed in the very active media sector. We are very pleased to have been trusted advisor to Sanoma in this transaction.  I believe Clifford Chance is one of the few law firms whose corporate practice has the breadth and depth to be able to advise in these complex matters, leading the negotiations for the consortia in The Netherlands and Belgium to such a successful conclusion."

The core Clifford Chance team advising Sanoma on the acquisition consisted of Gregory Crookes (lead), Annebeth Bleeker, Anna Blest, Eric Blomme, Tijmen Bongartz , Heleen Engelen, Mirjam van der Kaay, Wieteke van de Kamp, Katrien Lindemans, Sara van Mourik, Dieter Paemen, Line Poliquin, Xavier Remy, Daniel Sandelson, Shivani Singhal, Michiel Sunderman, Wouter Vanderheere, Steven Verschuur , Thomas Vinje, Bas Boris Visser and Bernd Meyer-Witting.