On Monday, TPG Real Estate Partners (TREP), the $5.5 billion real estate investment platform of global alternative assets giant TPG, announced it has completed its planned acquisition of iconic German film studio Studio Babelsberg AG. The studio‘s current CEO and COO, Dr. Carl L. Woebcken and Christoph Fisser, will continue to hold minority stakes in the business.
TREP announced in September 2021 that it would acquire a stake in Studio Babelsberg via acquisition of the company’s main shareholder, Filmbetriebe Berlin Brandenburg GmbH (FBB). As part of the agreement, FBB launched a public tender offer to acquire a majority of the shares in Studio Babelsberg for a cash offer price of EUR 4.10 per share. The offer was subject to a minimum acceptance threshold, which was fulfilled in late October.
With the closing of the transaction, Studio Babelsberg is now part of TREP’s global studio platform, Cinespace Studios, the second largest sound stage operator in North America. Following the fold-in of Studio Babelsberg, Cinespace will now operate 90 stages, furthering a strategy it describes as a pursuit of the best-in-class studio platform for premier content makers across the globe. The studio will continue to operate as an independent brand but benefit from the resources and networks provided by the global platform. Studio Babelsberg has a long history of hosting best-in-class content production, including recent German local language series such as Dark, Babylon Berlin, and 1899, as well as global features such as Inglorious Basterds, V for Vendetta, Bridge of Spies, and more recently The Matrix Resurrections.
“Across the globe, Studio Babelsberg is known for its quality and as a symbol of Berlin’s and Brandenburg’s creative culture,” said Michael Abel, Partner at TREP. “With Studio Babelsberg, we saw an opportunity to invest behind a leading studio facility that is well positioned to benefit from secular growth trends in media and content consumption. We support the company’s strategy and direction and look forward to growing the business.”
“We are excited to announce a successful completion of the transaction, and to welcome TREP as Studio Babelsberg’s new partner,” Woebcken and Fisser said in a joint statement on the deal. “The team values our rich history and brings significant insight and business building capabilities to Studio Babelsberg’s next chapter. We look forward to working together to further solidify our position as Europe’s premier studio.”
“Studio Babelsberg has a strong tradition of film making that has served some of the most iconic films ever made,” said Eoin Egan, COO of Cinespace. “As appetite for high-quality content continues to increase, we look forward to working with the Studio Babelsberg and TREP teams to grow Berlin into a global hub for content production.”
