(1888PressRelease)
May 09, 2007 - Looking for an aggressive, ethical, top producing private equity CFO, hedge fund visionary, alternative investment banker with major investment bank, or asset manager, to successfully structure and coordinate two investment vehicles ($20 m-$400m) via in-house placements or in conjunction with a large global investment bank, and in a very near term situation (several weeks) be able to place $1-$4 million in equity from an old-school boys network of high net worth investors for 2 A level films.
The first fund will be $10-$20 million private equity partnership for a motion picture finance fund that would hedge the risk across multiple films as well as have a convertible LLC structure that would enable investors to cash out on a public float as well.
The second fund would be a $400 Million-1 Billion deal that would co-finance a slate of a major movie studio's film projects. The structure would either be several tranches of senior debt, mezzanine, and/or can be set up as a "principal protected deal" to guarantee 100% repayment of deal
The innovation behind independent film finance is manifesting itself with a plethora of investors and film projects that are aggressively attracting venture capitalists, money and hedge fund managers, qualified purchasers, family offices, ex-founders and CEOs of .com and other companies and matching those with breakout films and success stories. Fred Smith of FEDEX, Norman Waitt of Gateway Computers who financed "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", Max Levchin and David Sacks of PAYPAL, Marc Turtletaub from The Money Store, Roger Marino from EMC Corp, former Chicago bulls co-owner Jim Stern, Jeff Skoll Of Ebay, Sidney Kimmel Of Jones Apparel Group, Minnesota Twins owner Bill Pohlad, real estate developers such as Bob Yari, Guggenheim Family Fund, and others are financing films.
Further, funds such as Legendary Pictures and the recent $1.2 billion Relativity Media/CITIGROUP deal are exemplifying similar models. Please see the following links for examples.
money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fo rtune_archive/2006/05/29/8378001/index.htm
www.hollywoodreporteresq.co m/thresq/corporate/arti cle_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003539538
http://www.dtweekend.com/issues/20060907/yari.php
http://www.variety.com/article/VR 1117933271.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
After recent Film Festivals, the market has been very big for sophisticated independent A-level films selling at 3-5x their investment to big studio distributors, as reported in both The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.
The Recent Academy Awards also showcased films that have all been financed privately: Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Capote, etc
Alternative venture investors are seeing a window of opportunity that the big studios are hungry for product.
The large opening in financing sophisticated films comes from two sources. On smaller budgeted films, studios are paying a hefty premium for films as an alternative to their continuing track record of losses at the box office. Its panic time at the studios. All the big budget films are tanking. Whats profitable are films such as "Saw" which was made for 1.5 million and has made nearly 100 million dollars worldwide and spawned a sequel. Or a $200,000 film like "Napolean Dynamite" with similar results.
The second part of the success factor is that the total cost of larger films in the $6-10 million dollar range. A financier puts up 20-30% in equity or a letter of credit, and in some cases, if the film has strong cast, the entire budget is financed through foreign sales. Add a DVD and Cable deal to the equation and sometimes investors can see revenues on a film before its even made. Plus, the long term library valuation of in-house financed product is also a key factor in measuring growth.
The Company's business model is based on two kinds of films. The 1.5-2 million 100% equity films that can be sold at a festival. And the larger budget ones where the cost of our participation is offset by retaining 100% of the international foreign film sales ,and, co-financing with major studios
The Company would like all candidates to have a verifiable track record of success in being able to raise capital from either high net worth alternative investors/asset managers for the smaller fund ,and, structuring large scale hybrid equity/debt deals with major global investment banking houses.
Candidates must also have the strength, determination, relationships, focus, and follow through to close such an initial fund within 4-6 weeks from a limited number of investors(1-5), and simultaneously initiate the larger fund with a global investment banker.
Also if you feel that you may need more time to close the larger deals but can readily access 500,000-$1,000,000 from 2-3 investors immediately to facilitate production on two films, please indicate so.
Please specify exactly in your cover letter major achievements in raising capital, including amounts, type, industry, source (high net worth alt. investors, family offices, investment banking, hedge funds, etc); knowledge of credit enhanced and principal protected deals, and, film finance; amount of availability/capital access immediately for smaller fund, and, which global investment banks you have relationships with that is a real relationships with executive decision makers and not just a cold call; and are you looking for simply another career transition or have you always wanted to be in film business and why.
Please also be in the "sixth sense" of making entrepreneurial things happen and please do not contact us just because you are curious what we are doing, but specifically because you have an innate burning passion to get on board the film finance train and help us all succeed in the long term.
###
