Future Capital Partners - insight & innovation
26 September 2006

Aramid Investment Opportunity

26_sep_2006.jpgLaunch of new investment fund. Target IRR in excess of 20% per annum. Pathfinder fund yielded annualise return of 48%.

Future Films Limited, one of the leading providers of structured finance solutions to the UK media and entertainment industry is delighted to announce its involvement with an exciting new investment fund, the Aramid Entertainment Fund (www.aramidfund.com), specialising in providing short and medium term liquidity to producers and distributors of film via a portfolio of asset backed loans.

The goal of the Fund is to generate a portfolio of loans and investments that earn average annual returns in excess of 20% whilst remaining within a relatively low, managed risk environment. Initially focussing on bridge financing, discounting of international tax credits and Gap financing for film productions, the Fund believes that the expertise in the media and entertainment industry that its Directors have, and that it has access to, will give it a material advantage in managing the risks associated with this form of lending.

The Fund has engaged Aramid Capital Partners LLP (www.aramidcapital.com), a three way joint venture between Future Films, and two major US based media finance entities, Screen Capital International and Stonehenge Capital Corporation, to source and advise on lending and investment opportunities. The LLP is headed up by former Finance Director of Pathé Entertainment, Simon Fawcett, and the combined expertise of its members places the fund in a unique position to access superior deal flow.

Commenting on the new venture, Tim Levy, Chief Executive of Future Films, said, "This is an exciting opportunity for us to broaden the product offerings we can make both to the global entertainment industry and our UK client base. Over the last 6 years, we have successfully provided similar sorts of lending using our own capital base, most recently yielding an annualised return of 48% for some private clients that co-invested with us, and believe that the current market environment is perfect to be providing such opportunities on a far wider scale."

Simon Fawcett added "Opportunities such as the new UK tax credit regime, whilst seemingly extremely beneficial to the British film production industry, will still leave many independent producers needing to cash flow their productions until the benefit of the tax credit is received. Aramid can offer a very attractive solution not only to this problem but to producers across the world looking for additional liquidity, which will surely only further benefit this industry."

Participating Shares in the Fund are currently being offered via an unregulated collective investment scheme.