French TV company Banijay posts higher Q1 sales and profits

PARIS (Reuters) – French TV production company Banijay, which is set to list on the stock market, reported on Friday higher first quarter sales and profits compared to a year ago.

The company’s first quarter revenues rose to 677 million euros ($704.4 million) from 544 million a year earlier, while it posted a profit of 12 million euros compared to a loss of 21 million last year.

Banijay will go public through a merger with a blank-check acquisition firm backed by LVMH luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault, in a deal worth more than 4 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9612 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Chris Reese)