23 MAR 2023

Fremantle acquires majority stake in Belgium's A Team Productions

Global producer and distributor Fremantle has acquired a majority stake in A Team Productions, a production house based in Belgium led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé.

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"Baghdad Messi"

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Global producer and distributor Fremantle has acquired a majority stake in A Team Productions. Based in Belgium, A Team Productions is led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé.

Founded in 2009, the company had its first major international success back in 2011 with the short film “Land of the Heroes” which won the International Jury Prize at Berlinale in 2011. They are also behind the short film “Baghdad Messi,” which won more than 50 international film awards including being shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014.

Other productions also include “Patsers” which attracted more than 500.000 viewers and was sold to more than 37 countries, “Torpedo,” “Yummy,” and the newly launched Ketnet series “Kids on the Block.” Later this year, the feature-length film “Baghdad Messi” and the high-end fiction series “Alter Ego” will also be released.

"After intense preliminary discussions we have a very good feeling about the experienced Fremantle team including Georgette Schlick, Claud Van Gessel, Manon Van Der Hoek, Dave Heuten and Annemieke van Vliet as driving forces of the European market. This combined with their strong position in the global industry, we and our entire team are looking forward extremely hard to working with Fremantle to further grow our business in both the local and international markets. We love it when a plan comes together,"  said Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé, Creative Producer and Executive Producer at A Team Productions, respectively.

“I have long admired Kobe, Hendrik and the whole A Team Productions team’s work. I am excited to be going on this journey with them, finding synergies and developing new content together. I cannot wait to work with this brilliant team and achieve great things together,”  commented Dave Heuten, CEO of Fremantle Belgium.

The investment in A Team Productions follows acquisitions over the past 18 months which include UK production company Dancing Ledge, scripted Italian production company Lux Vide, international development and production company Fabel, Australian-American television production company Eureka Productions, 12 production labels in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark from Nordic Entertainment Group, Irish production company Element Pictures, 72 Films, and most recently Silvio Productions.

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