Hemisphere Media Group, a Miami-based publicly traded pure-play Spanish language media company, is to acquire three Spanish-language cable television networks from Media World, a company owned by Imagina US, for approximately $102.2 million. The acquisition is structured as an asset purchase and is expected to be funded with cash on hand. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.
The networks acquired are:
- Pasiones, dedicated to showcasing the telenovelas and series, distributed to approximately 3.8 million subscribers in the U.S. and 7.2 million subscribers in Latin America;
- Centroamerica TV, a network targeting the third largest U.S. Hispanic group, featuring news, entertainment and soccer programming from Central America with over 3.3 million subscribers in the U.S.; and
- •TV Dominicana, a network targeting Dominicans living in the U.S., featuring news, entertainment and baseball programming from the Dominican Republic, with over 2.2 million subscribers in the U.S.
Together, these assets are expected to have generated approximately $12.2 million of EBITDA in 2013, resulting in an effective purchase price multiple of 8.4 times.
Alan Sokol, CEO of Hemisphere, stated, “We are thrilled to be bringing Pasiones, Centroamerica TV and TV Dominicana to our world-class portfolio. These networks target valuable, growing and underserved segments of the Hispanic audience. With this acquisition, Hemisphere will own five leading U.S. Hispanic cable networks, two Latin American cable networks, and WAPA-TV, the #1 network in Puerto Rico, expanding our leadership position in Hispanic television. We believe that we can add significant value to these channels through improved programming, marketing and distribution efforts, and these networks will expand our commercial inventory and cross-selling opportunities in the U.S. and augment our Latin American offerings.”
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Hemisphere. Rothschild served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP served as legal counsel to Media World.
USA, Miami, FL
Fusion Corporate Partners 
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