After making a paper profit of almost £6 million on the management buyout of his company, David Frank could be excused for finding somewhere quiet to enjoy his hard-earned spoils.

His “cave house” cut into a mountainside in Majorca, where he goes to think, seems perfect, but he is not cut out for navel-gazing.

Yesterday, the management of RDF, the independent television production company behind Wife Swap and Faking It, agreed the terms of a £52 million buyout of the organisation.

Mr Frank, 50, holds an 11.33 per cent stake in RDF but will not cash in the full amount. Instead, he will plough 85 per cent of his shares back in to the new company, allowing more of the senior management to claim a stake.

The deal, which must be voted through by 75 per cent of shareholders in January, comes as a result of the group's stock and profits plummeting over the past 16 months.

When Mr Frank, an Oxford graduate and former BBC business reporter, who began his career in investment banking, founded RDF in 1993, it was one of the fastest-growing independent producers in the UK.

Twelve years later, when it was floated, it was widely believed that production companies had a bright future on the stock market. For the first few years RDF grew rapidly, snapping up four companies in its first 12 months on AIM.

The honeymoon ended, rather dramatically, after the BBC aired a clip that appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photoshoot when in fact she had been walking in. After the controversy, the BBC and ITV temporarily suspended commissions from the group and RDF took a hammering.

Just as the mess was being tidied up, the financial crisis hit. From a high of 257p last July, shares fell as low as 69p early last month, while RDF's pre-tax losses soared to £1.5 million for the six months to the end of July, compared with a pre-tax loss of £199,000 for the same period last year.

But after a particularly painful 16 months, the buyout, led by Mr Frank and funded by the management team, a club of banks and a special purpose vehicle managed by Cyrte Investments, is a chance to open a new chapter and reinvigorate the company.

The deal will leave ownership of RDF split 50-50 between the SPV, led by Cyrte, and the management team. Mr Frank will own almost 10 per cent of the shares.

Mr Frank is married and has two sons aged 23 and 17 and a daughter aged 21.