Blue Ant Media Inc. has big expansion plans as a soon-to-be public company after reaching a deal to merge with another of Canada’s best known television producers.

The business has been privately held since Canadian media luminary Michael MacMillan founded Blue Ant in 2011 as a traditional TV producer that has since evolved into a major global content owner and distributor. But on Monday, the company announced plans to join the Toronto Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of Boat Rocker Media Inc., which has produced hit shows such as Palm Royale and Orphan Black , with the transaction expected to be complete in June.

“This was an opportunistic chance for us to go public and have permanent capital and access to further capital,” said Mr. MacMillan, who will become chief executive officer of the new company that will keep the Blue Ant name. “This transaction gives us more firepower, gives us greater size and enhances our balance sheet. We are already thinking about how to deploy these new resources.”

Blue Ant is acquiring three of Boat Rocker’s production studios – Insight Productions, Proper Television and Jam Filled Entertainment, which are behind the Canadian versions of The Amazing Race , Big Brother and Iron Chef . Boat Rocker CEO John Young, alongside co-founders Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier, will complete a management buyout of Boat Rocker Studios, which will continue as a private company.

Once the deal closes, and assuming certain metrics are achieved in 2026, the transaction should add more than $100-million to the Blue Ant balance sheet. The company is also planning to add to that acquisition war chest by selling more shares, Mr. MacMillan said, though he declined to give details on the expected size or timing of the equity financing plan other than to say “that is our current intention.”

In a conference call with analysts on Monday morning, Blue Ant chief financial officer Robb Chase said “the cash we are looking to raise would significantly increase our ability to accelerate M&A opportunities and take advantage of the current market conditions, opportunities that may not exist in a few years.”

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is a key player in the transaction. The Canadian insurance giant, led by billionaire Prem Watsa, is the controlling shareholder of Boat Rocker, a major shareholder of Blue Ant and is guaranteeing various aspects of the transaction.

“The Fairfax support alone drives significant, immediate financial value,” Mr. MacMillan said. “It is a material contribution.”

Reverse takeovers occur when a private company acquires a stock-exchange-listed company to access public markets without having to launch an initial public offering. Blue Ant’s share-based deal values Boat Rocker at $1.80 per share, which is more than double what the shares were worth when markets closed last Friday.

Boat Rocker was founded in 2003 and went public in early 2021. Within a few months, its shares were worth as much as $9 a piece before steadily declining. The stock has mostly traded below $1 per share since early 2024.

Blue Ant shareholders will own 73.5 per cent of the new company and Boat Rocker shareholders will own the remaining 26.5 per cent. Fairfax will be the single largest shareholder with a 23-per-cent ownership stake, though Mr. MacMillan will maintain control of the company through his ownership of multiple voting shares.

Mr. MacMillan rose to prominence shortly after co-founding Atlantis Films Ltd. in 1978 with just $300. The company acquired Alliance Communications Inc. through a reverse takeover in 1998 and changed its name to Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. Best known as the co-producer and co-owner of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise, Mr. MacMillan sold Alliance Atlantis in 2007 to CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Goldman Sachs for $2.3-billion.

At Blue Ant, his focus has turned increasingly toward owning unscripted, evergreen content that can be licensed globally. Perhaps the best example of the strategy is the company’s Love Nature channel, which Blue Ant acquired in 2012 when it was called Oasis and rebranded in 2015.

Blue Ant changed the focus of Love Nature from renting local content rights to commissioning original natural history programming and selling it either in a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming television) or subscription streaming format. Love Nature is currently available in more than 100 countries on multiple platforms and its annual revenue has grown from roughly $14-million in Blue Ant’s 2020 fiscal year ended Aug. 31 to $37-million in 2024.

The strategy has been a profitable one. In its most recent fiscal year, Blue Ant made $196-million in revenue, a 16-per-cent increase from 2023, and generated net income of $18-million.

Mr. MacMillan said the Blue Ant merger and acquisition strategy could involve building out more production capacity or expanding its content library, but he is paying particular attention to “genres that will travel well, have an evergreen shelf life and cost a sensible amount” and “delivering it internationally.”

“Building that out into a bouquet of brands alongside Love Nature is essential to our strategy,” Mr. MacMillan said. “It is not the old-fashioned business of being a Canadian broadcaster and importing American shows and putting them on a Canadian shelf.

“There are various other new forms of digitally delivering programming that I bet you many people weren’t even aware of five years ago,” he said. “That is the opportunity at Blue Ant that we see for ourselves.”