Plans for American lenders to build a bridge to European film markets with new financing strategies to fill out upfront production budgets came into focus in Rome on Tuesday.
“There is a vibrant local production market, which is always appealing. It’s large enough to be interesting to an institution like ours with institutional capital,” Raj Singh, CEO of Media Capital Technologies, told the MIA Market in Rome. Singh unveiled a new $100 million equity financing fund that will target Italian producers in a mature market with a long track record of box office success.
“It became more and more clear this was an opportunity we wanted to zoom in on,” Singh added. His comments follow the MIA Market opening with calls by European Commission and European producers for more inwards investment in homegrown projects to help compete against major studios and streamers active in Europe.
That was backed by the new European Investment Hub being launched in Rome, or a digital platform giving private institutional investors direct access to European investment opportunities. The carrot for the American lenders is helping cash flow Italian producers that tap European soft money by closing the gap between producers having to meet upfront production costs and getting reimbursed for tax credits or other public incentives down the line.
“The main idea is to have a financial structure that is complementary to the banks, and is able to customize for the producers’ needs,” Mauro Martari, CEO of RPI Holding, said of the new financial mechanism to increase funding for Italian films and Italian-shot project by foreign producers working alongside Italian partners.
“We want to be in the middle of this process to provide producers with cash when they most need it,” Martini added as producers need cash for production ahead of eventually securing tax credit rebates and production distribution advances. Steven Saltzman, a partner and head of the International Entertainment Group, based in the U.K., said the new European Investment Hub can work alongside traditional lending by more risk-averse banks.
“It enables a cash flow that otherwise wouldn’t be there. It enables capital to come into a market that obviously has great production capacity and that has great distribution capacity,” Saltzman argued. He pointed to American directors inspired by classic Italian films and the capacity for American financiers to do more in Italy.
“This is a market that deserves more and we can provide it in a nimble and rapid fashion,” Saltzman added.