Endemol Owners to Lose Control to Hedge Funds, Times Reports
October 02, 2011, 11:33 AM EDTBy Stephen Morris
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Owners of Endemol NV, the Dutch producer of the “Big Brother” TV shows, will lose control of the company in a restructuring that will reduce debt from 2.2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) to 500 million euros, the Sunday Times reported.
Shareholders such as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset SpA, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Cyrte Fund II BV, will have their stakes diluted when hedge funds holding the company’s debt swap it for equity, the newspaper reported. Goldman Sachs may lose as much as 500 million euros on the deal, according to the Sunday Times.
Goldman Sachs and Endemol didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment today.
--Editor: Alex Nicholson
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Morris in London at smorris39@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net
