Mon, 28 Aug 2023 | BUSINESS SALE
Independent TV production house Hartswood Films has put itself up for sale. The firm was founded in 1979 by Men Behaving Badly producer Beryl Vertue, who died last year aged 90, leaving the studio to her daughters.
Hartswood is behind a number of hit TV shows, including BBC dramas Sherlock, Jekyll (co-created by Hartswood creative director Steven Moffat) and Inside Man, HBO series The Time Traveler’s Wife and Amazon Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour.
These shows have been among a number of high-profile recent successes at Hartswood, and the studio is now seeking a buyer or investor that can help to support its rapid growth. In its most recent accounts, the studio said that it has a “strong production pipeline”.
In Hartswood’s accounts for the year to March 31 2022, it reported revenue of £50.7 million, up from £15.5 million a year earlier, while profit increased from £2.1 million to nearly £8 million. At the time, the firm’s total equity stood at £17.2 million.
Despite Hartswood’s strong revenue growth, its gross profit margin fell to 19 per cent from 29 per cent a year earlier. The studio could also face growing uncertainty amid widespread disruption in the film industry.
While the UK’s TV and film sector has enjoyed a booming period over recent years, boosted by the growing budgets provided by streamers including Netflix and Disney+, the UK industry remains deeply linked to Hollywood and could face considerable disruption as a result of the US actor and writer strikes.
Read about the recent growth in UK M&A volumes
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