The Swedish private investment firm Parsifal AB, headed by Peter Elkelund, is looking to buy into the French premium movie channel Orange Cinéma Séries. Talking to Le Figaro, Ekelund said he is partnering with investors SearchLight to buy the operation.
Earlier, Canal+ expressed an interest to acquire Orange Cinéma Séries from France Telecom and merge it with the TPS Stars premium channel. So far, these negotiations between the Canal+ Group and France Telecom have not resulted in a concrete take-over bid.
At the moment Orange Cinéma Séries has about 400,000 subscribers. France Telecom is now in the process of selling its pay-TV operations, including the Orange Sport channels.
Last July, Stéphane Richard, CEO France Telecom, said that the operator was to concentrate on its core business and withdrawing completely from the premium content TV business.
Elkelund is no stranger to the premium TV world, having being part of the original FilmNet operation. Later on, he was also involved in Canal+ Nordic.
