Blue Ant Media Set to Go Public By Acquiring Boat Rocker Media Via Reverse IPO
Indie studio Blue Ant Media, producer of unscripted series like Canada’s Drag Race and Northwoods Survival, has unveiled plans for a reverse IPO to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange by acquiring assets from Boat Rocker Media Inc.
Blue Ant, a private company controlled by former Alliance Atlantis head Michael McMillan, will go public via a reverse-takeover of Insight Productions, Jam Filled Entertainment and Proper Television picked up from Boat Rocker Media. As part of the deal, Boat Rocker Media will acquire all shares of Blue Ant, at a price of $2.25 each, or a 125 percent premium to the March 21 closing price of Boat Rocker Media stock.
After the completion of the transaction, shares in Blue Ant Media Corp. will trade on the TSO. As part of the transaction, Blue Ant shareholders are expected to own a 73.5 percent stake in the Toronto-based media company, with Boat Rocker Media shareholders retaining a 26.5 percent holding. Blue Ant said it generated CAN$196 million (US$137 million) in revenues in its most recent fiscal year ending August 31, 2024, up 16 percent from a year-earlier, and generated CAN$18 million (US$12.5 million) in net income.
As part of a separate transaction, the current leadership of Boat Rocker Media — co-founders and co-executive chairmen Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier and CEO John Young — will acquire Boat Rocker Studios in a management buyout. Boat Rocker Studios has in the pipeline Netflix’s Bet, showrun by Simon Berry, and The Ridge for BBC Scotland and Sky New Zealand.
For Blue Ant Media Corp., McMillan will serve as CEO of the new publicly-listed company and Brad Martin will be chairman. “This is an opportunistic moment for Blue Ant to go public, paving the way for long-term value creation,” MacMillan said in a statement on Monday.
“We are confident that this transaction will unlock significant value for all shareholders. Through the combination of our public listing, a strengthened balance sheet, and significant net cash post-transaction, we believe that we are strategically positioned for profitable global growth, both organically and through M&A,” he added.
Before launching Blue Ant in 2011, McMillan in 2007 sold Alliance Atlantis, which at one time included a lucrative half-stake in the popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise, to a partnership of CanWest Global Communications and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners for $2.3 billion.
Blue Ant Media is currently mainly comprised of a broadcast and streaming channel business, Blue Ant Studios, a producer of mainly unscripted and animation programming with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and London, and a Canadian cable TV channel division.
Insight Productions and Proper Television, both producers of unscripted series, and animation-focused studio Jam Filled, will continue to operate under the Blue Ant corporate umbrella. Separately, Boat Rocker Media’s scripted, unscripted and kids and family TV studio, Boat Rocker Studios, and its distribution arm and brand and franchise management divisions will be acquired by Boat Rocker heads Schneeberg, Fortier and Young as part of a management buyout.
The proposed new company, called IDJCo, is expected to operate under the Boat Rocker name. The transaction is expected to close in June 2025, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
“We are excited about this opportunity to acquire Boat Rocker Studios and use the resulting enhanced strategic focus and flexibility to capitalize on the exciting content creation, investment and partnership opportunities we see in the global marketplace,” Schneeberg, Fortier and Young said in a joint statement.