Investors Can Profit From Bollywood Films Through New Isle Of Man Based Fund

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

27 April 2004

A new fund has been registered in the Isle of Man which aims to provide investors with the opportunity to tap into the profits made by India’s booming Bollywood film industry.

Media Vision Management’s Bollywood Fund seeks to achieve capital growth, and will primarily invest into the Indian Film Industry. This will include providing financial assistance to Bollywood-themed productions, foreign companies seeking to outsource their operations, and co-production of movies with production houses in India.

Funding will be available to recognised and established production and media companies that are engaged in the business of production, distribution, media and entertainment and those providing technology services for various forms of entertainment, broadcasting and news services.

The Fund will seek to gain returns through participation in the intellectual property rights of the productions (royalty rights) by providing primary capital for equity participation and/or providing finance in the form of debt capital in return for interest payments in line with similar debt instruments.

The fund will receive the guidance of Udayan Bose, Chairman of the Indian division of global investment bank Lazard, and top Bollywood producer Pritish Nandy. It will invest in a basket of different films, from low budget productions to potential box-office hits which can often earn up to ten times their production costs.

Isle of Man stockbrokers Ramsey Crookall & Co Limited has been appointed by the Fund to provide investment advice in relation to the investment and reinvestment of the Fund's liquid assets.

According to reports, India’s film industry, which produces more films than any other country including the US, is growing by 25% per year, and is this year is said to be worth an estimated $5.5 billion.

The fund is open to both retail and institutional investors. However, the fund has been described as carrying a higher-than-average degree of risk and is therefore tilted more towards high net worth individuals, who must invest a minimum of £15,000.

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