This afternoon, the Board of Directors of Mediapro approved the dismissal of Jaume Roures as managing partner of the production company, a position equivalent to that of CEO. As advanced Five days, the executive leaves the house due to disagreements with the main shareholder, Southwind Media, after 30 years at the head of the firm. Tatxo Benet, who already shared management of the group, will continue in his current roles as president and chief executive, as well as the remaining members of the management team.
The Board of Directors makes the decision at the request of its majority partner and, in a statement, highlights that “Roures and Benet have been key players in the evolution not only of Grupo Mediapro, but they have been world leaders in the audiovisual sector.” . It also emphasizes that all members of Mediapro’s management team will continue in their positions normally. “All of them are fully committed to the future of the group and work tirelessly to satisfy their customers and provide value to shareholders.”
The move comes after three decades in which the executive has turned the audiovisual services firm that he created in 1994 into a true benchmark in the management of sports rights, with football – especially La Liga and the Champions League – as the main flag. At the same time, he has successfully developed television and film production divisions, whose works have received major international awards.
The decision is explained by the disagreements between Roures (Barcelona, 1950) and the majority shareholder and owner of the company, Southwind Media. The investment firm based in Hong Kong, which has important ramifications in the world of gaming, wants to give an orientation and a corporate structure to Mediapro that does not fit either with the founding principles of the house or with the vision that the businessman has. Catalan about the future of the company. According to official information from the production company, Roures plays the role of “managing partner”, a kind of CEO.
In addition to his work in daily operations, the executive is also a shareholder of the firm, with 5% of the capital. These sources emphasize that the logical thing would be for Roures to also get rid of that stake, and even for the company to buy it back, since his presence in the shareholding makes no sense if he does not share the strategic sense of the project. Apart from Southwind, with 85%, the capital also includes the British multinational WPP, with 5%, and Tatxo Benet, the historic partner of Roures, with whom he once left TV3 to set up Mediapro; has a similar quota. At this time, Benet’s departure from the company is not on the table.
Roures and Benet reached an agreement in 2018 with the Chinese Orient Hontai Capital, the country’s first private equity group, to sell it the majority of Imagina, the holding company that brought together Mediapro and Globomedia. This process led to the departure of the capital of key shareholders of the project. To begin with, Torreal, Juan Abelló’s firm, which held 22.5% of the conglomerate and was the one that promoted the search for an investor. Also from Emilio Azcárraga Jean’s Televisa, who had accompanied Roures in the La Sexta adventure and which controlled 19%, and from Mediavideo, the firm of Gerard Romy – the third musketeer in the founding of the production company -, which accumulated 12%. The sum of that 53.5% was what allowed the Asians to take control of the company, in a transaction that meant valuing the holding company at 1.9 billion. A basic condition of the agreement was the maintenance of Roures and Benet at the head of management.
Southwind Group entered the fray in mid-2022, when the company made official the refinancing of its debt after the very hard blow of the pandemic, which not only paralyzed a good part of the sports competitions and up to 56 filmings, but also triggered losses and debt. from a group that had never had it. Linked to Orient Hontai, which had also been affected by covid and in which it had invested, Southwind then acquired that percentage of close to 85% of the group after injecting 620 million euros. The operation left WPP, Roures and Benet with stakes of around 5%, respectively. “The majority of the capital increase will be allocated to the amortization of debt until it is below 400 million of net debt (or 500 million of gross debt), with a ratio of net debt to EBITDA of 2.3 times,” The company then highlighted in a statement. Initially, the approach did not imply a change in the management team until 2025.
As published by the Reuters agency just two weeks ago, Southwind would now be considering the possibility of placing its participation in Mediapro, an interest that coincides with the departure of Roures. The numbers accompany. According to the data corresponding to the year 2022, the latest available, the production company increased its gross operating profit (ebitda) by 18%, to 189 million, widely above forecasts and after maintaining income above 1,200 millions. The debt, located at around 435 million, also maintained the path of containment.
Roures’ legacy
In the same statement confirming the news, the audiovisual group has assured that “all members of the Mediapro management team will continue normally in their positions: Juan Ruiz de Gauna, general director; Eva Abans, financial director; Josep Ensesa, Legal Officer; José Luis Rubio, director of Broadcast and Media Services; Laura Fernández Espeso, director of The Mediapro Studio; Carmen Fernández Tallón, director of Innovation, or Carme Anglada, director of Communication.
Benet himself has declared that “Grup Mediapro has become a great company, a resilient company that has shown that it has always known how to overcome any new challenge.” “The entire management team and the 7,000 people who work in the group will continue to do so with the same efficiency, effectiveness and dedication. The entire management team and its CEO are fully aligned with the group’s shareholder partners, Southwind and WPP, with whom we seamlessly share the company’s future project,” he stressed.
“There is not, in this sense, the slightest disagreement. In this sense, not only have there been no discrepancies in the future model, but there has not been the slightest change in either the founding project or the values that the group represents. And there will not be any while this management team is here, because it is this management team that has put them into practice for thirty years and because our shareholders share our project and our values, which have been key when valuing their investment in Mediapro. “No one has changed them nor does anyone want to change them,” he assured.
On the other hand, Benet has stated that “the void that Jaume leaves in the group is immense.” “And from a personal point of view I will greatly miss these wonderful decades of working together, side by side, during which we have collaborated to build the Mediapro Group and make it what it is. But this would not have been possible without the people who work in the group, the best professionals in their respective areas. In this sense, Grup Mediapro will continue to be in very good hands,” he stated.
“The inspiration and legacy that Jaume leaves us are an irreplaceable part of Grup Mediapro’s DNA and will always remain present in the work of this company, reminding us that people come first, that we must never give up on our ideas and dreams, that working as Jaume has done it, we will continue to achieve everything we pursue, no matter how difficult it may seem, without fear being a brake on what talent and effort set us as a goal,” he commented.
Finally, Tatxo Benet has remarked: “We are now going to celebrate 30 years of life and everyone, absolutely everyone, shareholders, CEO, management team and all the people who make up the group are aligned and committed to living another thirty years, at least, with the same success that we have had until now.”
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