The tv manufacturing firm based by broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former racing driver David Coulthard is in talks with potential patrons a few sale.
Sky Information has learnt that Whisper Group, which was established in 2010 and gained a BAFTA for its protection of the Ladies’s Euros in 2022, is working with advisers on a deal.
The corporate is claimed to be open to a variety of choices, together with the sale of a majority or minority stake to both monetary buyers or a strategic purchaser.
Company financiers at KPMG are orchestrating talks with potential bidders.
Whisper is already 30%-owned by Sony Footage Tv, which acquired the stake in 2020.
It changed Channel 4’s Indie Progress Fund as an investor within the enterprise.
A majority of the shares in Whisper are owned by its founders and administration group.
Lioness Millie Brilliant celebrates England’s win on the Ladies’s Euros 2022, the protection of which was produced by Whisper. File pic: Reuters
The corporate is best-known for its sports activities productions, and is answerable for Channel 4’s Components One protection in addition to worldwide cricket, boxing and the Paralympics.
Whisper employs about 300 folks, and has operations in London, Cardiff, Manchester and Riyadh.
Its chief govt, Sunil Patel, co-founded the producer alongside Mr Coulthard and Mr Humphrey.
It’s mentioned to be plotting additional growth in sport within the type of greater occasions and rightsholders, in addition to in occasions, the place its purchasers embrace Crimson Bull.
Whisper can be centered on rising its presence within the US, the place it presently works with Tom Brady’s Faith of Sport, and the Center East, the place it’s partnered with Neom and Saudi Professional League groups.
Exterior of sports activities rights, it has produced documentaries about Ben Stokes, the England Take a look at cricket captain, and Sven-Goran Eriksson, the late England soccer supervisor.
It has additionally diversified into leisure programming, producing the Wheel of Fortune gameshow hosted by Graham Norton.
Its most up-to-date accounts disclosed a £4.3m pre-tax revenue for the yr to March 31, 2024.
“Whisper has profitable diversified into factual, leisure and occasions to enrich the broader mix of labor throughout its sports activities broadcast contracts,” it mentioned in a press release accompanying the accounts.
“It has been one other profitable yr for contract wins, with a collection of renewals with key purchasers and a brand new vary of great initiatives which is able to assist guarantee visibility over the following few years.”
The sale course of comes as ITV holds talks a few merger of its Studios arm with RedBird IMI-owned All3Media, one among Britain’s largest manufacturing corporations.
A mixture of the 2 companies could possibly be introduced in the course of the spring, in keeping with banking sources.
This weekend, a spokesman for Whisper declined to remark.
