Prime Focus World, N.V. (PFW), the creative services division of Prime Focus Limited (PFL) (BSE code: 532748), has announced that it has secured a Rs. 313 cr equity investment from Macquarie Capital. The investment will be deployed in two phases: Rs. 224 cr committed in the first phase signed today and Rs. 89 cr in a second transactional phase, both of which are designated for strategic growth. This investment now places an enterprise valuation of Rs. 1770 cr 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 PFW’s 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 PFW’s parent company, Prime Focus Limited. In addition to the funding from Macquarie, Prime Focus World also secured $10 million from China’s AID Partners in March. Coupled with a recent investment of $70 million 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 $43million 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 Lurhmann’s 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 Burton’s 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 World Sourcing 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.