Additions To Academy + New IPO

Vivek Kumar | Breaking News, Movies | June 19, 2007 at 11:58 am

Hi Folks,

a) The folks who gave us movies like 1971 and Honeymoon Travels, have become listed in the UK. Congratulations go to Studio 18 and TV 18 and the parent company

18 June 2007
The Indian Film Company Limited, Admission to Trading on AIM

The Indian Film Company Limited (AIM: IFC) is pleased to announce that it has been admitted to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange plc (”AIM”), and that its ordinary shares commenced trading today on AIM under the symbol “IFC”. The India Film Company’s Management Company will be jointly owned by Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) and Raghav Bahl, following regulatory approval of a new 50/50 joint venture created in India by Viacom and TV18, Viacom-18.

Highlights

The Company raised £55 million in gross proceeds through a placing of 55,000,000 ordinary shares at 100p per share giving the Company a market capitalization of approximately £55 million at admission.

The Indian Film company intends to invest in Hindi language films (Bollywood) – a £1bn market which is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 16%.

Network 18 Group, a leading Indian media company with partnerships with CNN and CNBC, and capitalised at over $1bn, is backing the fund through a £5million subscription.

The Company has committed expenditure of approximately £22 million on 14 initial film projects, some of which are to be released shortly after Admission.

Approximately 40m people join India’s middle class each year, a demographic which is expected to grow to 310m by 2015. The growth in the entertainment industry is being fuelled by a combination of growing disposable incomes, favourable demographics, deregulation, infrastructure investment and increasing value of content rates.

IFC is backed by a highly experienced advisory team and Directors. The Investment Adviser, Sandeep Bhargava, CEO and Shibashish Sarkar, CFO, who have over 31 years combined industry experience. The non-executive chairman, Shyam Benegal is India’s leading filmmaker. Raghav Bahl, the founder and majority shareholder of the Network 18 Group has joined the board as a non-executive director. Raghav was recently ranked by “India Today” as the fifteenth most influential man in India and also as a non-executive is Lord Desai, a renowned academic and Bollywood enthusiast, and published author on the subject.

The Company has entered in an Investment Management Agreement with BK Enterprises Limited, a Mauritius based company, which will be jointly owned on a 50:50 basis by Mr. Raghav Bahl and Viacom Inc. The Investment Manager will be subject to the overall policies, direction and control of the Board of The Indian Film Company.

IPO Details

Grant Thornton Corporate Finance is the Company’s nominated adviser and Elara Capital plc and Oriel Securities Limited are the Company’s joint brokers. Access Financial Services Private Limited acted as the Indian financial adviser to the Company.

Raghav Bahl, a director of The Indian Film Company, said:
”We are excited about the growth potential for The Indian Film Company on AIM. It will enable high quality international investors to reap the benefits of the structural changes and growth opportunities being thrown up by the Indian film industry.

Sandeep Bhargava, CEO of the Indian Investment Adviser said:
“We are at the threshold of a structural revolution in India’s film industry. Given the quantum and pedigree of the capital resources raised by The Indian Film Company, I am convinced that we shall be able to carve out a market leadership position. Our ambition is be at the forefront of this revolution, and create enormous wealth for a new category of investors who would be participating in India’s exciting film industry for the very first time”

The Indian Film Company

INTRODUCTION
The Company will operate as an externally managed India-focused motion picture company with outsourced production and distribution functions. The Directors and the Investment Manager believe that IFC will be the first publicly traded film company specifically created to invest in a portfolio of Indian films and films primarily targeted at the Indian audience of varying genre, language and budget. The Group will seek to provide capital appreciation through the construction of a diverse library of intellectual property rights across varying formats. The Company intends to generate returns for its Shareholders through the utilisation of the combined experience and industry knowledge of the Directors, the Investment Manager and the Investment Adviser in the direction, production and distribution of Indian films.
The Company will benefit from a special relationship with Studio 18, a division of Network 18. Studio 18 was launched in June 2006 as a full production, co-production, marketing and global distribution platform. The Company will have first right of refusal on all Film Projects originated by Studio 18 but the Company will also retain the flexibility to explore and invest in Film Projects generated by other production companies. Network 18 is the holding company of Television 18 and Global Broadcast News, all of which are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Television 18 has a joint venture with CNBC and broadcasts two 24-hour business news channels in India (CNBC-TV18 and CNBC AWAAZ). Global Broadcast News has a joint venture with Time Warner and also broadcasts two 24-hour general news channels (CNN-IBN and IBN7). The combined market capitalisation of the two companies exceeds US$1 billion.
Network 18 has undertaken to invest £5 million in Ordinary Shares as part of the Placing subject to it receiving certain regulatory approvals prior to Admission.

b) Then this year’s invitations to the additions for the Oscars were announced —

Following is the list of the additions to the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (the guys and gals who vote for the Oscar bascially). Source is the PR group of the Academy.
Actors
Jennifer Aniston
Adriana Barraza
Steve Carell
Daniel Craig
Aaron Eckhart
Chiwetel Ejiofor
William Fichtner
Ryan Gosling
Jackie Earle Haley
Jennifer Hudson
Danny Huston
Eddie Murphy
Christopher Plummer
James Rebhorn
Michael Sheen
Maribel Verdu
Animators
Sharon Calahan
George Griffin
John Kahrs
Torill Kove
Marcy Page
Troy Saliba

Art Directors
Hugh Bateup

At-Large
Sam Mercer
Lia Vollack

Casting Directors
Lisa Beach
Leslee Feldman

Cinematographers
Javier Aguirresarobe
Steve Gainer
Michael Goi
Michael Grady
Adam Kimmel
Alar Kivilo
M. David Mullen
Xavier Perez Grobet

Music
Carter Burwell
Alexandre Desplat
Javier Navarrete
Gustavo Santaolalla
Producers
Agustin Almodovar
Bonnie Arnold
Julia Chasman
Jonathan Glickman
Daniel Goldberg
Jack Rapke
Jane Rosenthal

Production Designers
Eugenio Caballero
Nathan Crowley
Nigel Phelps

Public Relations
Kevin Campbell
Jason Cassidy
Frank J. Chiocchi
Sarah Greenberg
Ileen Reich
Jeff Smith
Valerie Van Galder
Costume Designers
Consolata Boyle
Nancy Steiner
Directors
Peter Berg
D.J. Caruso
Antoine Fuqua
Paul Greengrass
Monte Hellman
Simon West

Documentary
Steve James
Nathaniel Kahn
James Longley
Brett Morgen
Laura Poitras
Eric Simonson

Executives
Greg Foster
Judd Funk
Adam Goodman
Andrew W. Gumpert
Michael J. Lambert
Yair Landau
David Weil

Film Editors
Sandra Adair
Virginia Katz
Saar Klein
Richard Pearson
Alex Rodriguez
Christopher Rouse

Live Action Short Films
Borja Cobeaga
Javier Fesser
Ari Sandel

Makeup
John E. Jackson
David Marti
Montse Ribe
Kazuhiro Tsuji

Sound
Michael J. Benavente
Linda Folk
Jessica Gallavan
Tim Gomillion
Howard London
Steven D. Williams
Jim Wright

Visual Effects
John Andrew Berton Jr.
Al DiSarro
Bryan Hirota
Alan E. Lorimer
Christopher Nibley
Douglas H. Smith
Ben Snow
Eric Swenson
Jon Thum

Writers
J.J. Abrams
Michael Arndt
Guillermo Arriaga
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Patrick Marber
William Monahan
Peter Morgan
Billy Ray
Erin Cressida Wilson

Don’t see any Desi names, but that should change over time. I think the last set of folks invited may have been Ashutosh and Vidhu Vinod, but I could be wrong

Sincerely,

Vivek “it is all about the business and industry” Kumar

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