London and Los Angeles – The Ink Factory, the company which produced and financed the multi-award-winning television adaptation of John le Carré’s The Night Manager, has closed a second round of equity financing, alongside an equity co-investment partnership and a senior debt facility.
This deal will significantly enlarge the company’s geographic reach, access to creative assets, development capacity and production capability. In aggregate, the financing delivers a total of over $180 million in funding capacity for the development and production of film and television projects, as well as enabling The Ink Factory to further expand its intellectual property acquisition activities and accelerating the expansion of the company’s operations in the digital arena and elsewhere from its headquarters in London and Los Angeles.
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 equity co-investment facility is provided by 127 Wall Productions, who will invest alongside The Ink Factory in all the company’s film and television productions.
The senior debt arrangement is led by Natixis Coficiné. Under the framework agreement between the companies, Coficiné will provide cash flow for Ink Factory productions, expanding on the facilities put in place for The Night Manager, for which Coficiné was the senior loan provider.
Hotel Artemis is the first project financed by The Ink Factory through its partnerships with 127 Wall and Coficiné under the new arrangements. The much-anticipated film Hotel Artemis (Jodie Foster, Jeff Goldblum, Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista) is currently in post-production in the US and will be released in Q3 2018. The recently announced adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl, starring Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) and directed by Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden) will also be financed under this agreement.
Simon Cornwell, Co-CEO of The Ink Factory said “We are thrilled to be partnering with 127 Wall to build on the fabulous platform provided by John le Carré’s extraordinary body of work. On top of this, we are already in development on projects with other exciting authors and storytellers. Across the board, we are looking forward to producing, financing and delivering creative, distinctive work across established and emerging mediums. We are also delighted that Coficiné, good partners on The Night Manager, have chosen to extend and broaden our partnership as well.”
“We are delighted to partner with the talented team at The Ink Factory to bring intelligent and engaging stories to TV and movie audiences around the world” said Arthur Wang, Co-Chairman of 127 Wall. “We are especially excited by the creative and commercial dimensions of our collaboration, including in the growing markets in our home base in Asia.”
Christophe Vidal, Director of Natixis Coficiné, said “Both my colleague, Edwige Rolin, and I have much enjoyed working with The Ink Factory on The Night Manager. Natixis Coficiné looks forward to supporting the financing of Hotel Artemis and The Little Drummer Girl, as well as the broader growth of Ink Factory’s slate in the coming years.”
