EXCLUSIVE: Herbert L. Kloiber’s Night Train Media has sold its stakes in Curve Media, BossaNova Media and Eccho Rights to Germany’s Serafin Group, we can reveal.
Serafin is now the main shareholder in the three European businesses, whose leaders now report into managers at the Munich-based company. Serafin has installed its own exec, Christoph Auer, as interim CEO following its takeover, financial terms of which have not been revealed.
We understand all three companies have been reporting into the new owner for several weeks already, as the deal with Night Train was quietly struck. Notably, private equity firm Serafin will also remain a 50% investor in Night Train, which is planning now to double down on co-production and co-financing of high-end scripted TV and films.
“Organizational changes” are taking place at Eccho, we hear, but Kloiber – who was the distributor’s CEO – is the only departure at present. Sources close to Eccho and Night Train have noted the two companies will retain a working relationship going forwards, with Kloiber still in business with Serafin.
The London- and Munich-based Night Train launched in 2020, with Serafin later boarding the business to form a joint venture business structure. Deals to acquire 100% of Chess Masters: The Endgame producer Curve, 75% of Turkish drama specialist Eccho Rights and 51% of unscripted distributor BossaNova Media followed, as the company sought to build a European production and sales group.
Night Train invested significantly in English-language scripted at Eccho, and saw shows such as crime drama Safe Harbor sell internationally, but the slate remained relatively limited. It is thought Eccho will no longer invest in the space and instead focus on shopping sought-after Turkish dramas such as Golden Boy and Beneath the Surface, which secured a batch of deals last week. No firm strategic decisions have been made at this stage.
Eccho, BossaNova and Curve are all well known companies in their own right. However, we understand Kloiber and Night Train management felt anticipated synergies between them didn’t materialize, causing a change of course.
Serafin, which buys into companies with annual turnovers of between €20M and €200M, has investments across various industries. It will now directly house Curve, Eccho and BossaNova. “Serafin sees the value in having them as assets,” said a source.
Curve is best known for unscripted series such as BBC Two’s Chess Masters, Discovery show Salvage Hunters and Line of Duty star Vicky McClure’s doc series Our Dementia Choir. The company has been part of Night Train since 2022.
BossaNova, meanwhile, is led by Paul Heaney, who also founded TCB Media Rights. Heaney has always maintained a significant ownership share in the company, which sells the likes of Borderforce USA, the …By Train franchise fronted by Professor Alice Roberts and Caught on Dash Cam.
Eccho has offices in Stockholm, Istanbul, London and Madrid and a 25,000-hour library. The company’s first chief exec was Fredrik af Malmborg, who stepped down in 2023, with Kloiber replacing him while also leading Night Train, which had acquired the company in 2022 from Korea’s CJ ENM.
Night Train positions itself as a specialist in co-production and co-financing for TV series, feature films and docs. We understand going forwards it will double down on scripted productions. It is currently attached to Samuel L. Jackson pic The Beast, also starring Joel Kinnaman and Guy Burnet; and The Housekeeper, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter.
The sale of Curve, Eccho and BossaNova is notable in that it is splitting up a consolidated group rather than bringing assets together. It comes in a year dominated by M&A that has seen Banijay and All3Media merge, and Paramount swoop for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Kloiber is the former Managing Director of Germany’s Tele München Group, which his father, Herbert G. Kloiber, founded