Business

Bad Sisters does good business for Sharon Horgan’s TV production company

Writer and actor owns 35% of Merman Television, which has delivered profits of €1.78m over two years as business ramped up after pandemic

Sharon Horgan: business has grown strongly on the global success of acclaimed TV series Divorce, Motherhood, Catastrophe and Bad Sisters. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Gordon Deegan
Tue Jan 9 2024 - 16:44

Sharon Horgan’s television and movie production firm Merman Television pulled in revenues of £50.9 million (€59.2 million) across 2022 and 2021 on the back of global hits such as the multi-award winning Bad Sisters, according to accounts just filed for the business.

The writer, director, producer and actor built up the business with now ex-husband Jeremy Rainbird and co-founder Clelia Mountford.

The London-based production firm’s business has grown strongly on the back of the worldwide success of the critically acclaimed series Divorce, Motherland, Catastrophe and Bad Sisters, which won four Irish Film & Television Academy awards (Iftas), including for best drama, and one Bafta award for best drama in 2023.

The accounts lodged with the UK’s Companies House last week show that the group recorded profits after tax of £430,223 (€500,433) in 2022 on revenues of £23.07 million (€26.83 million).

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That was down on what was described as an “exceptional” 2021, when the business made a profit of £1.1 million (€1.28 million) on turnover of £27.84 million. That was due to a number of productions slated to commence in 2020 being pushed back to 2021 due to Covid-19.

[ Bad Sisters review: Sharon Horgan’s new Irish-set comedy is dastardly, witty and bingeable ]

Separate documents lodged with Companies House show that Mr Rainbird received just under €1 million when exiting Merman Television last year. Mr Rainbird stepped down as director 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”.

Mr Rainbird retains another 3,000 shares of the 20,000 ordinary shares in the business; Ms Horgan and Ms Mountford each control 35 per cent of the business.

“High-end television tax relief” of £2.44 million for 2022 and £7.31 million for 2021 was a significant factor in the profitability of the business over the two years, the accounts state. The group had recorded a pretax loss of £2.01 million for 2022, with the £2.44 million tax credit delivering the net profit of £430,223.

Merman Television has offices in London and California. The business directly employed 16 people in 2022, with staff costs totalling £1.74 million. The five directors serving in that year shared pay of £638,651, with the highest-paid director earning £264,384.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times

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