Ink Factory secures $180m funding

Le Carré’s The Night Manager was adapted by The Ink Factory for the BBC and AMC

The Night Manager producer The Ink Factory has raised US$180m in funding through deals with companies including Hong Kong- and London-based investor 127 Wall Productions.

The Ink Factory said the investment will allow it to become a “global independent studio” and has been achieved through a combination of equity and slate financing.

The equity providers include The Ink Factory’s first-round investors, all of whom participated in the new financing, as well as new investor 127 Wall Productions.

The latter will also invest in all Ink Factory film and television productions, which include the previously announced miniseries based on John le Carré’s novel The Little Drummer Girl for the BBC and AMC.

The Ink Factory said it will use the investment to develop for film and TV, as well as acquire IP, increase its digital activities and expand its operations beyond its headquarters in London and LA.

The firm has also agreed a deal for French financial firm Natixis Coficiné to provide cash flow for its productions, building on the relationship struck for The Night Manager, for which Coficiné was the senior loan provider.

Feature film Hotel Artemis will be the first project financed by The Ink Factory through its partnerships with 127 Wall and Coficiné under the new arrangements, followed by The Little Drummer Girl.

Ink Factory is also working on an adaptation of le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold in association with Paramount TV, also for the BBC and AMC.

Stephen and Simon Cornwell, co-CEOs of The Ink Factory, said in a joint statement: “Across the board, we are looking forward to producing, financing and delivering creative, distinctive work across established and emerging mediums.”

Arthur Wang, co-chairman of 127 Wall, added: “We are especially excited by the creative and commercial dimensions of our collaboration, including in the growing markets in our home base in Asia.”

The Ink Factory was set up in 2010 by the Cornwell brothers, sons of le Carré (real name David Cornwell), and has so far focused primarily on adapting their father’s work for film, TV and other media.