EMG and Gravity merger: How Covid-19 nearly derailed the deal and what it means for staff
Inside EMG’s Nova 104 OB van
The announcement of a merger between EMG and Gravity Media on 11 January may not have taken everyone by surprise, with the sports production sector awash with talk of a tie-up between the two firms which first began discussions about a deal a few years ago.
John Newton, founder, chief executive and majority shareholder of Gravity Media, who will be appointed executive chairman of the newly combined EMG/Gravity Media group, explained how the Covid-19 pandemic initially scuppered the deal.
He said: “We are both private equity-backed businesses. We saw the alignment and the geographic reach of both businesses and the complementary nature of that, and our services, and so we started having discussions.
“We have all spent the last two days together, and if you were in the room, you would absolutely think it was already one team.”
“The deal was relatively complicated because of the number of stakeholders and the geographies so there were a lot of moving parts to the deal.
“We were very close to closing things off but then Covid hit and that derailed it. We had to wait for Covid to end, and for the business to get back on track and then we picked up the discussions in the second quarter of last year. The commercial terms were agreed quickly, and the deal was completed just before Christmas, but we thought given the time of the year it was best to hold for a bit before we launched.”
EMG and Gravity merger:
EMG and Gravity Media agree merger
New opportunities and what the deal means for clients
Common platforms and technology roadmaps
What will happen to the brands?
The new group will be led by Shaun Gregory, the current chief executive of EMG, as its global chief executive officer, while Newton will take on the role of executive chairman.
Both Gregory and Newton will join the main Board of the newly combined group, along with EMG’s existing shareholders PAI Partners, Ackermans & Van Haaren, Watchers & Co and Banijay. TowerBrook Capital Partners, which currently has a significant shareholding in Gravity Media, will retain a stake in the combined group. Newton will maintain his “significant” interest in the combined entity, of which PAI Partners will be the majority shareholder.
“The financial markets are not amazing to be doing deals at the moment, but this is a non-cash transaction, which is why it’s a merger because it takes the best of both businesses,” said Newton. “There is a scale difference; the EMG business is bigger than the Gravity Media business, but all of the existing Gravity Media and EMG stakeholders are now in the new combination.”
John Newton, Gravity Media founder
EMG was advised by Société Générale and Crédit Agricole CIB. Moelis & Company provided advisory services to Gravity Media on the deal. Today’s announcement follows the satisfaction of regulatory and other required conditions, with Newton confirming to SVG Europe that any regulatory hurdles related to the transaction have already been cleared.
He said: “There was a process with the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s main competition and consumer protection authority) but there was nothing to answer there, and that was purely about the scale of EMG in the UK.”
The two companies will now be merged during a particularly busy year for the live production industry, with Paris 2024 and the European Championships in Germany taking place this summer.
“Is there ever a right time to integrate businesses?” said Newton. “I’ve bought 12 businesses over the last few years, and integration is always a challenge. We had 50, 60 people in in a conference here for the last two days and you would have thought it was one company for the last 10 years. Because it’s a very small industry, we all work closely together so we’ve got a great understanding of how we’re going to go to market.”
Gregory added: “It is an incredibly busy year for sure, and of course, there will be challenges, but the reason why we went through a very thorough process and conducted a beauty parade for external advisors was to receive support from companies that do this day in, day out; they do nothing else, but integration, and that was to make sure that we have credibility in the decision-making process and that we do things properly. And to make sure that we integrate as quickly as possible, and that it’s seamless.
“[Mergers] all come with different challenges, but the upside is that this industry is super professional, and our people are so focused on what they do. And, as John says, the individuals all know each other and they just want to get to the right outcome, because they’re so laser-focused on our customers. We have all spent the last two days together, and if you were in the room, you would absolutely think it was already one team.”
In terms of what the deal means for employees of EMG and Gravity Media, Gregory said: “Firstly, you’ve got greater scale, with good geographical coverage now globally. So, it provides a much bigger and better stable company in an environment in an industry that’s been through some difficult times, not just with COVID. We’re all familiar with some of the smaller competitors that have, sadly, suffered, and I think [this deal] provides a much bigger, more stable business.
“Secondly, it gives people a great amount of opportunity in terms of their roles and what they can work on…when you see the showreels of what we work on, it’s pretty breathtaking.”
And when asked about the potential for redundancies, Newton said: “I think the crossovers are quite limited. One of the reasons and the rationale for doing the deal is that our geographic markets are quite separate.
“[Gravity Media has] a big position in APAC, and we have a bigger position in the US than EMG. We have some overlap in the UK, but our UK business provides slightly different services, to what EMG does, so there’s a good story for the aggregation of those services.”