108 Media buys majority stake in Piccadilly Pictures, launches APAC fund

London- and Singapore-based studio 108 Media has acquired a majority stake in UK television and film financing specialist Piccadilly Pictures.

Abhi Rastogi

The deal will allow Piccadilly Pictures, which is also headquartered in the UK capital, to expand into the Asia Pacific market with the launch of Piccadilly Pictures APAC.

The new entity, working out of Singapore and aimed at the pan-Asian region, is described as a content investment fund focused on “credit-based opportunities across the creative IP infrastructure.”

Piccadilly Pictures co-founders Christopher Figg and Robert Whitehouse will continue to lead the company.

The pair will work directly with 108 Media CEO Abhi Rastogi and president Justin Deimen to expand Piccadilly’s brand and footprint into Asia and other markets. Piccadilly will also bring its financing expertise to 108 Media’s existing development slate of film and TV projects.

According to 108 Media, Piccadilly Pictures and its associated businesses have raised and arranged roughly £150m (US$183m) in recent decades through production funding, lending against tax credits, cash-flowing contracted pre-sales and gap-financing unsold rights.

It has worked to raise financing for projects including feature Golda, starring Helen Mirren, Storm Boy with Geoffrey Rush and Mandy with Nicolas Cage.

108 Media has grown significantly in recent years with the acquisition of DCD Rights and its subsidiaries, its majority acquisition of Asia’s Revolution Media and an investment in Singapore-based animation IP specialists Robot Playground Media.

It also recently agreed a co-financing deal with BritBox International on 3×60’ series Inspector Singh, which is set to begin production next month, and forged a showrunner partnership with horror-focused producer and director Neil Marshall on Nightshade (6×60’).

“Piccadilly and its team will supercharge 108 Media’s ambitions to be the leading cross-continental film and television finance firm capturing multiple revenue streams and the latent lending opportunities across the world, with a focus on aligning the marketplace’s price points with investible and value-driven screen products, all bolstered by real-time sales data and reliable in-house assessment,” said Rastogi.

Deimen added: “What Piccadilly Pictures APAC represents is a new way forward of how the media ecosystem in the Asian regions can and will evolve. As bigger and more complex content coproductions from this part of the world becomes further in demand internationally, so does its need for visible and sophisticated media financing solutions.”

Whitehouse and Figg said in a statement: “The ability to work closely with 108 Media and the additional funding available to Piccadilly will greatly increase our capacity and effectiveness.”