At the end of February Tarak Ben Ammar, the Tunisian head of Eagle Pictures France, bought the Studios de Paris. Ben Ammar got into the film business in the mid-1970’s and has since developed many international projects as a producer.
At the end of February 2022 the EuropaCorp group announced in a press release that “EuropaCorp, and its partners Frontline and Euromedia, are selling their shares in Studios de Paris to Eagle Pictures France, a company controlled by Tarak Ben Ammar, long-time partner of the Studios de Paris.” With his company, Ben Ammar thus becomes sole share-holder of the Studios de Paris of which he was Managing Director. Prior to this takeover the shares were held by Luc Besson (9.9%), his production company EuropaCorp (40%), Euromedia (25.01%) and Tarak Ben Ammar (25%). The transaction is estimated at €33 million.
It comes after EuropaCorp’s prolonged financial difficulties in 2019 and 2020, when it was placed in receivership with a debt of €222 million.
Created by Luc Besson and operating since 2012, Studios de Paris has nine sound stages with a combined area of 9,725 m². They are part of the “Cité du Cinéma” complex, described by the company as “Hollywood sur Seine”. For Luc Besson the studios were a way of competing with the largest international studios.
The Studios de Paris will soon host the filming of the new season of the Netflix series, Emily in Paris.
Sources : Atlantico, BroadcastPro, Capital, France Info
