Banijay retains finance chief

The newly enlarged Banijay has confirmed that Sophie Kurinckx has been retained as group chief financial officer as part of the integration of the company with its newly acquired Endemol Shine Group (ESG).

Sophie Kurinckx

Kurinckx will oversee all financial activity across Banijay’s 22-territory combined footprint and its portfolio of 120-plus production entities following the US$2.2bn takeover of ESG, which was completed in July.

Kurinckx originally joined Banijay back in 2010 as head of group financial control before taking up her current role in 2012. She will now be charged with aiding the integration of the department across the enlarged business.

Prior to Banijay, Kurinckx was at JCDecaux as deputy head of group consolidation and group IFRS specialist, having started her in career in 2000 as an auditor for KPMG. In her current role as group CFO, Kurinckx will continue to report to Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti.

The appointment of Kurinckx ties in to Banijay’s efforts to merge the two businesses following the recent acquisition and subsequently triggers the departure of Ivan Nash Vila as CFO of ESG.

Integrations, with similar promotions and departures, have already been announced for the group’s distribution arm and operations in Iberia and Italy, Germany, Benelux, France, the Nordics and the UK. Industry veteran Cathy Payne is overseeing the merger of the groups’ distribution arms.

Yesterday the production and distribution giant dealt a further blow to event organiser Reed Midem’s hopes of hosting a physical Mipcom in Cannes next month by confirming it would not be attending, becoming the latest of a number of big-name firms to do so amid the Covid-19 pandemic.