Fremantle acquires majority stake in Belgian company A Team Productions

Baghdad Messi

European production group Fremantle is continuing its recent rapid expansion with the acquisition of a majority stake in Belgium’s A Team Productions (ATP).

Based in Belgium and founded in 2009, ATP is led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé. The company had its first major international success back in 2011 with short film Land of the Heroes, which won the International Jury Prize at Berlinale in the same year.

ATP is also behind fellow short Baghdad Messi, which won more than 50 international film awards and was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014.

Other productions include Patsers, which attracted more than 500,000 viewers and was sold into more than 37 countries, and newly launched Ketnet series Kids on the Block. Later this year, a feature-length version of Baghdad Messi and high-end fiction series Alter Ego will also be released.

Dave Heuten, CEO of Fremantle Belgium, said: “I have long admired Kobe, Hendrik and the whole ATP team’s work. I am excited to be going on this journey with them, finding synergies and developing new content together – I can’t wait to work with this brilliant team and achieve great things together.”

Fremantle’s investment in ATP comes on the heels of many acquisitions over the past 18 months, including those of UK prodco Dancing Ledge (The Responder), Italian scripted prodco Lux Vide (Devils, Leonardo), international development and production company Fabel (Bosch), Australian-American TV prodco Eureka Productions (Parental Guidance, Finding Magic Mike) and, most recently, Silvio Productions (Shadow of Truth, The Baby Daddy, Buried).