EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has narrowly avoided the enforced closure of Entertainment One UK Limited, a British trading arm with revenues of more than £176M ($237M), after settling an unpaid tax bill.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the UK tax authority, issued eOne UK with a “winding-up petition,” which is the last resort taken by a creditor when attempting to recover debt.
HMRC was essentially seeking a court order to put eOne into liquidation, but the tax body will now take steps to withdraw the petition after the bill was settled.
Deadline understands that it was a “clerical error” that was corrected when this publication made Lionsgate aware of HMRC’s petition. We hear eOne UK could actually be entitled to a tax refund.
HMRC has been approached. The tax body does not usually comment on specific cases, but its position is that it only issues winding-up petitions as a last resort.
Entertainment One UK Limited’s most recent earnings show that the company posted sales of £176M in the year to December 26, 2023, but its pre-tax losses stood at nearly £23.5M.
Lionsgate acquired eOne from Hasbro in 2023, but this deal did not include the lucrative Peppa Pig kids’ brand. Entertainment One UK Limited was carved up before the transaction, with the company’s profitable family division, which housed Peppa Pig, transferring to Hasbro Consumer Product Licensing Limited.
Entertainment One Unscripted TV UK, a separate operating company, produces shows including Amazon Prime Video’s Premier League reality series Married to the Game and Adam Richman Eats Football, the Discovery+ series hosted by the presenter of Man v. Food.
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