Carlyle agrees to sell Taiwan's EBC to DMG Entertainment CEO

A spokesperson for the private equity firm confirmed that an agreement had been struck with Mintz, but gave no further details. Mintz previously told the LA Times that he had signed a deal to purchase the asset for $600 million.

Carlyle paid $127 million for a 40% interest in EBC in 2006. Two years later, it put in a further $62 million, taking its stake to 49.6%. Following further incremental increases, the PE firm is now said to own 67% of the business.

In parallel to the original EBC investment, Carlyle acquired its former parent, Eastern Multimedia, for $1.3 billion. It was renamed Kbro and sold to the Tsai family's Dafu Media in 2010 for $1.9 billion. A previous exit attempt - to Taiwan Mobile - failed to get past the regulators. The EBC deal will also require regulatory approval.

EBC directly owns eight Chinese-language television channels in Taiwan, covering news, finance, movies, drama, entertainment, and content for children. The company's Asia network takes in markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and Malaysia, while it also carries on cable and satellite services in North America and Europe.

"EBC is an amazing television network and I've had my eye on it for a while," Mintz said. "It's the largest privately owned Mandarin-speaking television network in the world. It's a great platform for us."

DMG is a global entertainment and media company with holdings across motion pictures, television, comic book publishing, music, gaming, creative management and entertainment-themed properties. It has helped produce and distribute movies such as "Iron Man 3" and is an investor in the upcoming remake of "Point Break."

The company also has a Chinese affiliate, DMG Yinji, which was set up in the 1990s as an advertising agency. It then started distributing non-Chinese films in the Chinese market and subsequently moved into film production. "The Founding of a Republic" - released in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China - is among its credits. DMG Yinji went public in Shenzhen earlier this year through a reverse merger.

A source familiar with the EBC deal stressed that Carlyle's agreement was with Mintz personally, not DMG, and that Mintz no longer had any involvement with the Chinese company.

Should the deal go through, it would be Carlyle's third Taiwan exit announced in the last 12 months. The PE firm agreed to sell Ta Chong Bank to Yuanta Financial Holdings for around $300 million and exited Natural Beauty Bio-Technology, a Hong Kong-listed business of Taiwan origin, through a management buyback.

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• Topics
• Exits
• Media
• Greater China
• The Carlyle Group
• Exit
• Media
• TMT
• Taiwan (China)