MUMBAI: Prime Focus has raised Rs 240 crore by way of issue of equity shares worth Rs 120 crore each to Monsoon Studio Private and Reliance MediaWorks (RMW), at Rs 52 per share, on percent basis.
As part of the transaction, the India and overseas operations of RMW’s film and media services business was combined with Prime Focus through a slump sale. The net consideration was paid in the form of fresh equity shares of PFL valued at Rs 52 per share.
With this, Prime Focus has completed the transaction to combine with RMW’s global film and media services business. The transaction was first announced in July 2014 and received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 15 December, 2014.
The promoters of PFL and RMW had earlier announced the mandatory open offer in Prime Focus, to the extent of 26 per cent of the fully diluted share capital of PFL, at Rs 52 per share, in compliance with applicable SEBI rules and regulations. The open offer closed on 16 January, 2015.
The tryst with RMW was announced close on the heels of Prime Focus’ Hollywood facing creative services subsidiary Prime Focus World merging its VFX business with acclaimed VFX house Double Negative. The combination of RMW – PFL and Academy Award winning Double Negative creates the world’s largest and the most integrated media services group with over 5500 people present across 20 locations offering visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, animation, and cloud-based digital media solutions that transcend the film, advertising and television industries.
Prime Focus and Double Negative are currently working on a action-packed slate of upcoming movies, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys, Ant-Man, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Mission Impossible 5, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Recently delivered shows include Kingsman: The Secret Service, Ex Machina, Jupiter Ascending, Seventh Son and In The Heart Of The Sea.
“We have completed the last leg of a protracted but path breaking transaction today. From here on our full focus will be to drive the integration process and unlock synergies for the benefit of our customers, employees and stakeholders worldwide. Today we are best positioned to offer outstanding creativity, cutting edge technology, integrated Digital Media Services, never before scale, financial robustness and sustainability,” said Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra.
