Dori Media Acquires Stake in Argentina’s Central Park Productions

TEL AVIV/BUENOS AIRES,
October 29: Dori Media International (DMI) has finalized an agreement to
acquire a 50-percent stake in the Argentinean production company Central Park
Productions (CPP) for $1.1 million in cash.

CPP has $3.1 million of in
debt and an enterprise value of $5.3 million. DMG has provided a loan to CPP
for approximately $1.8 million, which decreases CPP’s current liabilities to
$1.3 million; this loan may be off-set against future productions filmed at
CPP’s studios for Dori Media Contenidos (DMC), DMI's wholly-owned Argentinean
production house.

CPP has owned production
facilities and TV studios in Buenos Aires, Argentina since 1997. CPP has three
production studios that are fully equipped and have the capability to film outdoors
on location. The acquisition of this 50-percent stake in CPP gives Dori Media
Contenidos guaranteed access to, and production time at, the studios.

CPP has produced more than
30 of its own telenovelas and has assisted many other production houses with
their productions, including several for Dori Media Group (DMG). DMG has
previously used CPP’s studios to shoot hits such as El Refugio and Collar de Esmeralda. CPP is currently servicing DMG for its new
production LaLola, based on the
original idea of Sebastian Ortega from Underground Productions, and for Patito
Feo which is produced by Ideas del
Sur from Argentina and the Mexican media giant Televisa. DMG owns the rights to
and distributes Patito Feo
worldwide except to the American continent, Spain Andorra, Italy, Greece and
Portugal.

Celina Amadeo, who will be
appointed as CEO of CPP and as VP of production at DMC, holds the remaining
50-percent stake of CPP. Amadeo has an extensive background in TV production,
owning Studios Sonotex in Buenos Aires (1990-2000) and having produced around
50 telenovelas, including Chiquititas, Perla Negra and El
Refugio.

Nadav Palti, the president
and CEO of DMG, commented: “We are delighted at having completed this deal,
which will provide Dori Media with guaranteed production time at these very
important and extremely busy studios. In addition to this, not only will Dori
Media benefit from the obvious synergies and cost savings generated by filming
at what will be our own studios, this acquisition is also very much part of our
strategy to strengthen our production arm in Latin America to make us one of
the major production houses in the region.”

—By Irene Lew