French TV production house Carrere Group has applied for redressement judiciaire, the French equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Carrere, controlled by Charles Carrere, owns animation business Les
Armateurs, and also produces of French detective series Maigret, and
production houses Scarlett and Ego. However, losses recently have been
significant. 2007's operation loss was $162m, against revenues of
$188m.
Additionally, and not helping, is a separate investigation of the
business by the French Financial Markets Authority with allegations of
inaccurate company filings.
Carrere had expected to be bought by animation specialists Moonscope
but failed to have the financing in place by Nov 30. Financial
newspaper Les Echos puts Carrere's debts at some $84m.
