LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harris Williams & Co., a preeminent middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide, is pleased to announce the merger of Double Negative (DNeg), one of the largest visual effects services providers to the global film industry, with Prime Focus World. Prime Focus World is the creative services subsidiary of Indian-listed global media and entertainment services leader Prime Focus Limited. The merger will be funded by an investment of equity capital in Prime Focus Limited by Reliance MediaWorks and Prime Focus Limited’s existing promoters, Naresh and Namit Malhotra. Reliance MediaWorks is a subsidiary of Reliance ADA Group, one of India’s foremost business conglomerates. As part of the deal, Prime Focus Limited will acquire the Indian and overseas assets and business of Reliance MediaWorks’ Film and Media Services division. The merger of the three entities will create one of the world’s largest independent creative services providers with 5,500 employees around the globe. The merger closed on July 15, 2014 and was led by Thierry Monjauze of Harris Williams & Co.’s London office.
“Double Negative has done a great job establishing itself as one of the premier independent visual effects providers to the film industry and will preserve its existing brand, culture and creative environment,” said Thierry Monjauze, managing director in Harris Williams & Co.’s Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Group and head of the firm’s London office. “The combination of Double Negative with Prime Focus World and Reliance MediaWorks brings new opportunities with a broader reach to the organization by creating one of the largest global entities of its kind.”
Founded in 1998, DNeg has grown to become one of the industry's success stories and is now Europe's largest independent provider of visual effects for the film industry (operating from locations in both London and Singapore). Through steady and constant growth, the company has always sought to retain both the creative drive and involvement of its artists through all projects and a close collaborative working relationship with clients. This approach ensures films both small and large receive the same high standard of creative and technical service. This has proved a winning combination resulting in awards recognition from the Visual Effects Society (for Inception and Sherlock Holmes), BAFTA (for Inception and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) and the Academy® Awards (for Inception).
Prime Focus World (PFW), a subsidiary of Prime Focus Limited, provides visual effects, 2D to 3D conversion and animation services to major media and entertainment companies. PFW has brought its expertise to many wide release Hollywood films including Transformers: Age of Extinction, Gravity, Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Noah, White House Down, The Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, World War Z, Men in Black 3, Star Wars: Episode I, II & III, Dredd 3D, Total Recall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Avatar. PFW has global operations with a presence in key centers of creative content production – Los Angeles, Vancouver, London, Beijing and Mumbai.
Reliance MediaWorks, the film services arm of Reliance ADA Group, is one of India’s leading media and entertainment companies, with a presence across several businesses including theatrical exhibition of films, film and media services and television content production and distribution. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company operates across 78 cities and towns in India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Harris Williams & Co. (www.harriswilliams.com), a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC), is a preeminent middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide. The firm has deep industry knowledge, global transaction expertise and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Harris Williams & Co. provides sell-side and acquisition advisory, restructuring advisory, board advisory, private placements and capital markets advisory services.
Harris Williams & Co.’s TMT Group has experience across a broad range of sectors, including software, internet and digital media and infrastructure solutions. Within these segments, the TMT Group focuses on targeted subsectors including application software, data and informatics, eCommerce, education technology, energy technology, financial technology, healthcare IT, infrastructure software, IT and tech-enabled services, mobile, online advertising and marketing services, public sector software and telecom, data center and networking solutions. For more information on the firm’s TMT Group and other recent transactions, visit the TMT Group’s section of the Harris Williams & Co. website.
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