FFI acquires Aussie post-production firm Buff Dubs

Entertainment industry completion contract provision provider FFI Holdings has acquired Buff Dubs, it announced on Monday, which it described as one of Australia's “most innovative” post-production services companies with technology leadership in encoding, transcoding, media duplication and mastering.

The AIM-traded company said the acquisition, which followed the signing of a letter of intent between the two firms in September, was its third this year in post-production services, following the purchase of Pivotal Post in February and EPS-Cineworks in November.

Collectively, those acquisitions were described as “key milestones” in FFI leveraging its core completion contract business into a broader ancillary service business in order to serve the growing needs of its customers.

Headquartered in New South Wales, FFI said Buff Dubs was founded in 2005 and had grown quickly through its ability to process media content “of any description” and transform, reproduce and aggregate it in the various formats demanded by clients.

That had helped Buff Dubs to secure preferred provider and vendor status with some of the world's leading media platforms, including Netflix, Apple and Google, as well as gaming platforms including PlayStation and Xbox.

In the trailing 12 months, FFI said Buff Dubs generated AUD 4.3m in revenues and EBITDA of AUD 0.88m.

FFI was purchasing 100% of Buff Dubs on an instalment basis, with an initial payment of AUD 1.65m in cash followed by five annual payments of 12.5% of Buff Dub's EBITDA at a 4x multiple.

The purchase would be funded by a combination of IPO proceeds and internally-generated cash.

FFI said the current management and directors of Buff Dubs would remain in place, and would continue to oversee the operations and growth of the company.

“2017 has seen FFI make a concerted expansion into post-production services as we broaden our business to serve the wider needs of our entertainment industry clients,” said FFI CEO Steven Ransohoff.

“As with Pivotal Post and EPS-Cineworks, Buff Dubs brings valuable expertise and customer relationships to FFI.

“Buff Dubs' vendor relationships across consumer media platforms such as Netflix, Apple and Google are particularly exciting opportunities for FFI as we help our clients reach new audiences with their content.”