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Village Roadshow yesterday revealed plans to dramatically expand its
co-production deal with Warner Bros, committing an extra $206 million to help
fund the Matrix sequels and other big budget movies.
The refinancing agreement ends months of uncertainty over the expensive and
complicated film venture, which has tested Village's market credibility over the
past few months.
As part of the revised deal, the company bought out the shareholders in its
19.9 per-cent-owned off-balance-sheet entity, Village Roadshow Films, which now
becomes a subsidiary of Village Roadshow.
This means that Village is now a 50 per cent partner in the joint venture
with Warner the revised deal covering 40 films, 10 more than the original
agreement.
These include a swag of sequels such as Ocean's 12, Miss Congeniality II,
and Cats and Dogs II.
Previously, Village relied on a $750 million off-balance-sheet loan facility
to fund the productions but this has now been increased to $900 million and
extended by three years to January 2006. It is backed by a banking syndicate led
by CIBC.
The company has refused to divulge the identity of the shareholders in VRF
but they include several major financial institutions and US insurance
companies.
Managing director Graham Burke insists the restructured agreement gives
Village a bigger slice of the profits to be made from the films.
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