The acquisition completion followed an initial announcement of the deal in March 2022.
Evision, a subsidiary of e&, and Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company ADQ have completed a deal to acquire a majority stake of 57% in streaming platform Starzplay Arabia.
Evision made the announcement regarding the acquisition on March 17 this year and filed a statement in Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on Tuesday that the process has been completed.
This acquisition is in line with e&’s strategy to scale up the entertainment segment of e& life consumer digital vertical by accelerating Evision’s development on the video streaming segment.
Other shareholders of StarzPlay Arabia include Starz, SEQ Investors and Evision.
The consortium, in which Evision owns 66.7% share, acquired the controlling stake in Starzplay Arabia and is committed to pay up to $130m in cash and kind, including a component linked to an earn-out.
StarzPlay Arabia will be consolidated into Evision’s financials starting this month, according to the statement.
The move also significantly enhances Starzplay Arabia’s positioning across the entire MENA region, which has close to 2m subscribers across 19 countries. It will enable the launch of new product lines from Evision and expand geographic reach and access to advanced technical capabilities.
StarzPlay is using the investment to add new content, such as Italy’s Serie A, getting rights for AFC (Asian Football Confederation) games, adding UFC to the platform and showing Asia Cup cricket matches live. It will also focus on original shows from the Middle East.
The investment in Starzplay Arabia provides ADQ access to a significant subscription video on demand and OTT service providers in the region, Jaap Kalkman, group chief investment officer at ADQ.
