Today we proudly announce our majority stake acquisition in A Team Productions (ATP).
A Team Productions, based in Belgium, is led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé. Founded in 2009, the company had its first major international success back in 2011 with the short film Land of the Heroes which won the International Jury Prize at Berlinale in 2011. They are also behind the short film Baghdad Messi, which won more than 50 international film awards including being shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014.
Other productions also include Patsers which attracted more than 500,000 viewers and was sold to more than 37 countries, Torpedo and Yummy and the newly launched Ketnet series Kids on the Block. Later this year, the feature-length film Baghdad Messi and the high-end fiction series Alter Ego will also be released.
Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé, A Team Productions: “After intense preliminary discussions we have a very good feeling about the experienced Fremantle team including Georgette Schlick, Claud Van Gessel, Manon Van Der Hoek, Dave Heuten and Annemieke van Vliet as driving forces of the European market. This combined with their strong position in the global industry, we and our entire team are looking forward extremely hard to working with Fremantle to further grow our business in both the local and international markets. We love it when a plan comes together.”
Dave Heuten, CEO, Fremantle Belgium: “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.”
The investment in A Team Productions follows the acquisitions over the past 18 months which include UK production company Dancing Ledge (The Responder), scripted Italian production company Lux Vide (Devils, Leonardo), international development and production company Fabel (Bosch), Australian-American television production company Eureka Productions (Parental Guidance, Finding Magic Mike) and 12 production labels in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark from Nordic Entertainment Group (This is Nice Group), Irish production company Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite), 72 Films (All or Nothing: Arsenal, 9/11: One Day in America) and most recently Silvio Productions (Shadow of Truth, The Baby Daddy, Buried).
The acquisition of A Team Productions forms part of our wider growth strategy to invest in production companies, content, and talent around the world to source the best creative ideas, develop and create strong and unmissable IP.
