RDF's management shows interest in buyout

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 24-Apr-08, 15:35

LONDON - The management team of RDF Media and a consortium of undisclosed companies have made a joint approach to buy the TV production company.

RDF Media this afternoon said it had received an indicative cash proposal to acquire the entire share capital of the company. The news sent its share price up 28% on today's open to 126p.

Independent directors Richard Eyre, Tim Weller and Maggie Carver, will form an independent committee on the board of RDF Media to evaluate the indicative proposal.

RDF Media said: "This approach is at a very early stage and there can be no certainty that an offer will be made or as to the terms of any such offer, should one be forthcoming.

"A further announcement will be made in due course, as appropriate."

The company is headed by chief executive David Frank. It was founded in 1993 and floated on AIM in May 2005. Its shows include 'Wife Swap', 'Location, Location, Location', 'Ladette to Lady', 'Shipwrecked' and 'Christian O'Connell's Sunday Service'.

Last year, RDF was in trouble with Buckingham Palace and the BBC after it supplied a misleading trailer for its programme 'A Year with the Queen'. Footage had been reordered to suggest Her Majesty had walked out of the photo shoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz in anger, but this was not the case.

Peter Fincham, BBC One controller, and Stephen Lambert, RDF's chief creative officer, both resigned over the scandal.