Sharon Horgan's production firm records €59.2m in revenues on Bad Sisters success

Writer, director, producer and actor, Ms Horgan built up Merman Television Ltd with now ex-husband, Jeremy Rainbird and co-founder, Clelia Mountford.

Sharon Horgan’s TV and movie production firm, Merman Television recorded combined revenues of £50.9m (€59.2m) across 2022 and 2021 on the back of global hits such as the multi-award-winning, Bad Sisters.

That is according to the first set of consolidated accounts for Merman Television Ltd which writer, director, producer and actor, Ms Horgan built up with now ex-husband, Jeremy Rainbird and co-founder, Clelia Mountford.

On the back of Ms Horgan’s writing, the London-based production firm’s business has grown exponentially due to the worldwide success of the critically acclaimed Divorce, Motherland, Catastrophe and Bad Sisters, which won four Irish Film and TV Awards (IFTAs) including Best Drama and one BAFTA for Best Drama in 2023.

The new accounts lodged with Companies House in the UK show that the group recorded post-tax profits of £430,223 (€500,484) and revenues of £23.07m (€26.83m) for 2022.

The group recorded revenues of £27.84m for the ‘exceptional’ 2021 as a result of productions slated to commence in 2020 being pushed back to 2021 due to Covid-19. The group recorded post tax profits of £1.1m for 2021.

Separate documents lodged with Companies House show that Mr Rainbird received just under €1m in a share deal when exiting Merman Television last year.

Mr Rainbird stepped down as director of the business on January 17th last year and documents show that on the same day, the company paid Mr Rainbird £850,000 (€988,817) for 3,000 ordinary shares of the firm in a ‘Buyback Agreement’.

Documentation shows that after the transaction, Mr Rainbird retained another 3,000 shares of the overall 20,000 ordinary shares in the business where Ms Horgan retains a significant shareholding.

The group recorded the post-tax profits for 2022 and 2021 after receiving ‘high-end television tax relief’ of £2.44m for 2022 and £7.31m for 2021.

The group recorded a pre-tax loss of £2.01m for 2022 and the tax credit of £2.44m resulted in the post-tax profit of £430,223.

Merman Television today has offices in London and California and in their report on 2022, the directors state that they “are pleased to report a successful trading period for the group companies due to the progression made on a number of key productions”.

They state that “production and overhead costs again remained under close control”.

The directors state that Merman Television “will continue to operate as a distinct company developing and producing programmes for major UK broadcasters and streaming platforms”.

On the risks facing the group, the directors state that “broadcasters have started to tighten their belts, spending less on programmes amid expectations of reduced ad income and waiting to see a full series rather than accepting episodes one by one”.

The group’s cost of sales for 2022 totalled £22.87m resulting in a gross profit of £194,154. Merman Television directly employed 16 in 2022 and staff costs totalled £1.74m.

Five directors served in 2022 and directors’ aggregate pay totalled £638,651 and pay to highest paid director totalled £264,384.

At the end of December 2022, the group’s accumulated profits totalled £1.7m. The group’s cash funds declined from £6.27m to £1.5m.