Prime Focus World secures $53 MN equity investmentMumbai, June 21, 2013 Prime Focus World, N.V. (PFW), the creative services division of Prime Focus Limited (PFL) (BSE code: 532748), announced today that it has secured a $53 MN equity investment. The investment will be deployed in two phases: $38 MN committed in the first phase signed today and $15 MN in a second transactional phase, both of which are designated for strategic growth. This investment now places an enterprise valuation of $300 MN on Prime Focus World.
The capital raised will be used for the build out of the global creative services platform, near-term strategic acquisitions and deleveraging debt in the parent company, Prime Focus Limited, with the combined emphasis of expanding PFWs position as a global leader providing visual effects, animation, and stereo "3D" conversion services to major studios and filmmakers around the world.
We are delighted to have found a like-minded financial partner in Macquarie as we continue to execute on our strategy of global growth for our company and shareholders, said Namit Malhotra, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Prime Focus World, N.V. and Founder of Prime Focus Limited. In the past five years, our business has gained tremendously through expansion of our product offerings and entrance into new markets. Combined with the backing we have received from our other financial partners AID Partners Capital and Suntrust, the investments will allow Prime Focus World to continue to expand and diversify our creative and technological offerings around the globe.
Macquarie Capital, the advisory, capital raising and principal investing arm of Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG; ADR: MQBKY), made the investment to Prime Focus World and provided advisory services to PFWs parent company, Prime Focus Limited. In addition to the funding from Macquarie, Prime Focus World also secured $10 MN from China's AID Partners in March. Coupled with a recent investment of $70 MN from Standard Chartered Private Equity in Prime Focus Limited (PFL), these investments illustrate strong confidence in the business strategy and growth prospects for the overall group.
Namit added, "After having made an initial investment of $43 MN in 2008 to build out our global platform, we have transitioned and become a business where today our shareholders are seeing a seven times increase in value, while most companies have found it hard to keep pace with the changing times. The investments validate our global ambition to become a world leader while continuing to create greater value for our shareholders.
PFW has brought its expertise to many wide release Hollywood films, including most recently Baz Lurhmanns The Great Gatsby and Paramount's World War Z, and upcoming releases such as Sony Pictures' White House Down. Previously released films that the company contributed to include Men in Black 3, Star Wars: Episode One The Phantom Menace, Dredd 3D, Total Recall, Tim Burtons Frankenweenie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Resident Evil: Retribution, Green Lantern, Immortals, Wrath of the Titans, Mirror Mirror, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Avatar.
Prime Focus has crafted its own path when it comes to how creative services business is run globally - be it the WorldSourcing model or establishing a sustainable global digital pipeline for VFX and 3D conversion or developing View-D their proprietary 3D conversion process. Under Namit's able leadership, Prime Focus World has transformed from being purely an Indian organization to a truly global creative services provider of significant scale and influence in Hollywood and other key content markets across the globe.
-ENDS-
*Exchange rate: 1 USD = Rs 59
About Prime Focus Limited
Prime Focus Limited, a global leader in media and entertainment industry services employs over 4,500 professionals in 19 facilities across 3 continents and 4 time zones. We provide end-to-end creative and technical services including visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, video/audio post-production, digital content management and distribution, Digital Intermediate, versioning and adaptation, and equipment rental to the Film, Broadcast, Advertising and Media industries. Prime Focus is behind path breaking technologies like CLEAR (Hybrid Cloud technology enabled enterprise digitization platform) and View-D (stereoscopic 2D to 3D conversion). Leveraging our Global Digital Pipeline and pioneering delivery model WorldSourcing we partner content creators at every stage of the process ensuring work flow efficiencies, cost optimization and creative enablement. Listed on the BSE and NSE of India and UK LSE's AIM, Prime Focus has operations in Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, London and Mumbai.
For more details, www.primefocusltd.com
About Prime Focus World, N.V.
Prime Focus World ("PFW"), a subsidiary of Prime Focus Limited, provides 2D to 3D conversion, visual effects and animation services for major media and entertainment companies. PFW has brought its expertise to many wide release Hollywood films, including the The Great Gatsby and upcoming White House Down and World War Z as well as previously released Men in Black 3, Star Wars: Episode One The Phantom Menace, Dredd 3D, Total Recall, Tim Burtons Frankenweenie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Resident Evil: Retribution, Green Lantern, Immortals, Wrath of the Titans, Mirror Mirror, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Avatar. Prime Focus World has global operations with a presence in key centers of creative content production Los Angeles, New York, London, Vancouver and Mumbai.
For more details please visit www.primefocusworld.com or contact info
primefocusworld [dot] com
WorldSourcing, CLEAR and View-D are regi
