Sabido deal rescues Power Corp

Struggling UK drama firm Power Corp has been acquired by Sabido Investments, an African firm helmed by Marcel Golding, owner of free-to-air South African channel e.tv.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, rescues Power, which was forced into administration by Lloyds Banking Group in September, as first reported by C21.

Power has since been running day-to-day as effectively as possible, with staff attending Mipcom in October and attempting to continue production and sales activities while under administration from Lee Manning and Nick Edwards of Deloitte.

In a statement, Manning said: “The downturn has particularly affected the media industry, so it is testimony to the quality of the business that we have been able to secure a sale.”

Sabido will house the firm within its South African subsidiary Longkloof and is pledging to safeguard the jobs of the company’s remaining 18 employees. Ten Power staff have been made redundant since September.

Power’s slide into administration was met with anger by Power chairman and CEO Justin Bodle earlier this year, who told C21 Lloyds had “decided to kill the golden goose,” despite it being able to pay back its debt.

The 15-year-old producer-distributor, whose titles include Crusoe, Flood, The Day of the Triffids and forthcoming James Follett adaptation Ice, had been battling to repay a loan of around £10m-12m (US$15.4m-18.4m) to the bank, and essentially had a new buyer in place when Lloyds put the firm into administration.

“We had an equity fund, Privet Capital, that was willing to meet 100% of their requirements but needed more time to put the deal together. But the bank was not willing to extend beyond today,” Bodle said in September. “If we’d been given another two weeks I’m very confident we would have done it.”