Banijay hires Stéphane Préfol for newly created M&A expansion role

European production giant Banijay has hired Stéphane Préfol as head of M&A, a newly created position focused on growing the company through acquisitions.

Stéphane Préfol

Préfol, who takes up his position on March 6, will be based in Paris reporting to both CEO Marco Bassetti and chief financial officer Cédric Brignon.

Préfol has spent more than 15 years in the M&A space and joins from Publicis Groupe, where he had been associate director since 2015. While there, he worked on more than 40 acquisitions in the creative, production, events, media, tech, e-commerce and data industries globally.

He will now collaborate with Banijay’s executive team worldwide to develop and execute its growth strategy.

Bassetti said: “We’ve made no secret of our ambitions for further growth into 2023 and with Stéphane we can continue to be more effective in broadening our business offering, building our reputation as a go-to for talent both in content and beyond.”

In 2022, Banijay acquired Brazilian studio A Fábrica, Israel’s MoviePlus Productions, London-based Mam Tor Productions, Beyond International, Sony Pictures Television Germany, UK prodco Kindle Entertainent, Italy’s Movimenti Production and Grøenlandia Group, and France’s Tooco, among others.