Technicolor Creative Studios: Strengthening of the management team and Board of Directors - Constructive discussions with creditors and shareholders - Business update
07 Février 2023 - 8:13AM
CORPORATE PRESS RELEASE
Strengthening of the management team and
Board of DirectorsConstructive discussions with
creditors and shareholdersBusiness
update
PARIS
(FRANCE), February
7th, 2023 – Following
the announcements of November 15th and November 30th, 2022, the
Board of Directors of Technicolor Creative Studios (Euronext Paris:
TCHCS) (the “Company”) appointed external advisors to perform an
independent review of the Company’s businesses to identify areas
for improvements from an operational, organizational and financial
perspective. This review has allowed the Company to define a
further set of improvement actions in the continuity of the
Re*imagined plan announced in November.
As a result, in order to accelerate the
Company’s transformation whilst continuing to deliver high quality
projects to clients, the Board of Directors of Technicolor Creative
Studios announces today the appointment of Caroline Parot as
Interim Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) to take the lead on the
acceleration of the Company’s global transformation and the
implementation of a broad operational improvement program. Caroline
Parot will work closely with Christian Roberton who, as Deputy CEO,
will be fully dedicated to clients and project execution as well as
talents.
The Company furthermore announces that it is
actively engaged in constructive discussions with its creditors and
certain key shareholders to recalibrate its debt and equity
structure with a view to address its financing needs as from Q2
2023.
The Company’s top management and Board of
Directors are fully committed to protect the best interests of its
clients, talents and stakeholders.
- Appointment of Caroline
Parot as Interim CEO to take the lead on the acceleration of
Technicolor Creative Studios global transformation, alongside
Christian Roberton as Deputy CEO, who will be
fully dedicated to clients and project execution as well as
talents
Following her appointment as Senior Advisor to
the Company announced on November 30th, 2022, Caroline Parot has
been helping the Company to design and implement a comprehensive
set of recovery actions. Previously CEO of Europcar, after having
worked six years at Technicolor SA, she brings her experience in
leading a global customer-focused company.
Announcing this appointment, Anne Bouverot Chair
of Technicolor Creative Studios said “Caroline has all the
qualities required to lead Technicolor Creative Studios in the
execution of its transformation plan. Her previous experience will
be instrumental to put the Company in a stronger position to
enhance profitability and seize market opportunities.”
Christian Roberton, Deputy CEO, said: “I have
been working with Caroline over the last few months and I welcome
this new leadership structure. This will allow me to dedicate all
my time to our clients and talents. Together with our team, we will
be relentlessly focused on delivering high quality projects whilst
resolving the operational issues we face today.”
Caroline Parot, new Interim CEO, declared: “I am
proud to serve this world-class award-wining company at this
critical juncture. Alongside with Christian and the senior
executive team, we are fully committed to deliver high-quality work
to our clients. We will be accelerating the transformation
leveraging on Technicolor Creative Studios unique global platform
of cutting-edge technology and talents. This will generate
significant improvements to restore the Company’s profitability and
reaffirm its market leading position.”
- Further
strengthening of the
executive team
- Simon Presswell appointed as Global
Head of Operations, he will be responsible to oversee the
implementation and execution of improvement actions. Simon has
previously held both Executive and Board positions across
Entertainment and TMT businesses, with a demonstrated track record
in transformation and turnaround.
- Hugues de Nicolay appointed as
Interim Chief Financial Officer.
- New Board
appointments
- Angelo Gordon, second largest
shareholder of the Company and one of the key shareholders taking
part in the ongoing discussions around the financing structure,
appointed as Board observer.
- Guillaume Maucomble, employee of
the Company, appointed by the works council as Director
representing employees.
- Ongoing
constructive discussions with
its creditors and certain key shareholders
- Over the last few weeks, the
Company initiated discussions with its creditors (amongst them the
top five creditors which together represent more than 70% of the
debt outstanding) and certain key shareholders to recalibrate its
debt and equity structure with a view to address its financing
needs as from Q2 2023.
- The dialogue is progressing well
within an amicable conciliation framework and the Company is aiming
at finalizing these discussions over the next weeks.
- The various strategic options in
line with the Company’s corporate interest to protect the best
interests of clients, talents and stakeholders are being
considered1.
- As benefits from actions
implemented starting in Q4 last year are only expected to
materialize progressively over this year, 2022 and 2023 results
will be further impacted by additional costs incurred and to be
incurred to deliver major client projects. The Company now expects
Adjusted EBITDA2 for
2022 to land at approximatively
€20m and Adjusted EBITDA for 2023
to be below the previous outlook.
Furthermore, the Company
expects 2023 to
be a transition year and has therefore
decided to withdraw its 2023 outlook subject to further assessment
of the benefits from the ongoing initiatives. The
Company expects a sharp rebound
in 2024 and a return to a normalized profitability
in 2025.
- The Company has experienced
operational challenges over the past months on the back of a very
busy year. Post-Covid demand has been strong and MPC delivered 70
major films with heavy special effects content in 2022.
- Alongside this sustained demand,
Technicolor Creative Studios had to face a significant shortage of
experienced talents which have caused delays on both ongoing
projects and the start of new ones and highlighted the need for
improved project management and monitoring to deliver on time.
- In addition to this lack of
adequate resources, operations were negatively impacted by internal
reorganisations at MPC and the Mill post-Covid.
- Mikros Animation and Technicolor
Games have continued to perform in line with expectations.
- The Company
has been focused on its program to address these
operational issues
- Third-party
reviews by renown firms are helping the Company to
identify areas for improvements from a financial, reporting and
operational perspective.
- Continued
improvement of real-time project tracking with
action-orientated process to resolve current delivery issues.
- Deep-dive assessment of top
management completed and recruitment of critical hires is
progressing well.
- New retention program for
key talents launched.
- The industry is recognising
the Company for the high-quality work its studios are
delivering
- MPC was recently nominated for an
Oscar (‘Best Visual Effects) for work on Top Gun: Maverick as well
as BAFTA, Emmy, VES & Annie nominations for projects including:
Prehistoric Planet, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Finch, Thirteen
Lives and Valhalla: The Bridge.
- The Mill was recently hailed as the
No.1 Post-Production Company in the UK and Europe at the Little
Black Book ‘Immortal Awards’. In November 2022, The Mill opened a
new VFX studio in Seoul in response to South Korea’s growing
influence in the global advertising & brand experience
market.
- Technicolor Games collaborated on
two of the biggest AAA global sports titles of the year including
NBA 2K23 and FIFA 23. Other major holiday releases included: Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow 6, WWE 2K22, NBA 2K23, NHL 23, Madden 23, FIFA 23,
Gotham Knights, High on Life.
- Mikros Animation partnered with
Nickelodeon on the SpongeBob Movie – ‘Sponge on the run’ which was
broadcasted for the first time in the US during Thanksgiving. The
studio had its biggest year yet for episodic releases, including
Star Trek Prodigy 2, Dragon: The Nine Realms and Croods: Family
Tree.
Financial Calendar
2022 Full Year Results |
March 8, 2023 |
***
Warning: Forward Looking
Statements
This press release contains certain statements
that constitute "forward-looking statements", including but not
limited to statements that are predictions of or indicate future
events, trends, plans or objectives, based on certain assumptions
or which do not directly relate to historical or current facts.
Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current
expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from the future results expressed, forecasted, or implied by such
forward-looking statements. For a more complete list and
description of such risks and uncertainties, refer to Technicolor
and Technicolor Creative Studios’ filings with the French Autorité
des marchés financiers. The prospectus prepared by Technicolor
Creative Studios in connection with the admission of Technicolor
Creative Studios shares to trading on the regulated market of
Euronext in Paris as part of the distribution of 65% of Technicolor
Creative Studios shares by TSA to its shareholders, approved by the
AMF on August 1, 2022 under number 22-331, is available free of
charge and upon request at the company’s registered office, 8-10
rue du Renard, 75004 Paris, France, or on the websites of the AMF
(https://www.amf-france.org), and Technicolor Creative Studios
(https://www.technicolorcreative.com/investors/).
***ABOUT TECHNICOLOR
CREATIVE STUDIOS
Technicolor Creative Studios shares are admitted
to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris
(TCHCS)
Technicolor Creative Studios is a creative
technology company providing world-class production expertise
driven by one purpose: The realization of ambitious and
extraordinary ideas. Home to a network of award-winning studios,
MPC, The Mill, Mikros Animation and Technicolor Games, we inspire
creative companies across the world to produce their most iconic
work.
Our global teams of artists and technologists
partner with the creative community across film, television,
animation, gaming, brand experience and advertising to bring the
universal art of storytelling to audiences
everywhere. www.technicolorcreative.com
***
Investor Relations Contact:
Alexandra Fichelson: Alexandra.fichelson@technicolor.com
Corporate press: Image 7:
Technicolorcreative@image7.fr
1 Debt-to-equity conversions, new money debt and / or equity
capital injection are among the options that are being considered.
The implementation of these options could have a significant impact
on the capital structure of the Company.2 Unaudited Adjusted EBITDA
after Lease which corresponds to Adjusted EBITA after lease adding
back Depreciation and amortization, excluding depreciation of
usage-based IT costs, operating eases assets depreciation and
Amortization of intangibles that arose from acquisitions or
disposals (PPA amortization) and non-cash income and expense such
as equity-settled share-based payments, including capital lease
depreciation.
- 07.02.23 TCS-Business Update
Technicolor Creative Stu... (EU:TCHCS)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Mai 2024 à Juin 2024
Technicolor Creative Stu... (EU:TCHCS)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Juin 2023 à Juin 2024