Loni Farhi and Berk Uziyel
Canal+ Group and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary M7 Group exercised their call option on the 30% of shares in SPI International that they do not already own, resulting in the total 100% ownership of the group. As part of this move, Berk Uziyel and Loni Farhi, the founders of SPI, have stepped down from their leadership roles with immediate effect.
Erwan Luherne, Director of Business Integration for Canal+ International, and Jeroen Bergman, Board Member of M7 Group, responsible for content and business development, will take over Uziyel and Farhi's responsibilities. Luherne, who has been with Canal+ for 18 years, becomes Managing Director of SPI International. He will be supported by Bergman, who spent 20 years at Liberty Global before launching his own consultancy business in 2019 – working with SPI. The Amsterdam-based executive then joined the M7 board in 2022.
“SPI International has a long history of providing top-quality content to audiences around the world, and we are eager to take the company to a new stage of its development. Both Erwan and Jeroen have strong track records, so I have confidence they will continue to bring great success to SPI,” said Hans Troelstra, CEO of M7 Group.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Luherne and Bergman commented: “We are committed to building on the company’s strong foundations and leveraging the Canal+ Group collective expertise to continue providing engaging and relevant content to viewers.”