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MUMBAI: Legendary Entertainment, co-producer of movies
such as Dark Knight and Hangover, announced
that it has completed separate equity and debt financing
deals totaling approximately $275 million in aggregate
proceeds.
The
equity component consists of $128 million in new financing
from a collection of new and existing investors.
Existing
Legendary equity investors who participated in this
round include Jim Breyer and Breyer Capital and Accel
Partners, IDG Capital Partners, and Gordy Crawford.
New investors in Legendary include Morgan Stanley Investment
Management, Peter Thiel's Thiel Capital LLC, and Eric
Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures, LLC.
Goldman,
Sachs & Co. acted as sole agent to Legendary in
the equity financing.
Additionally,
Legendary simultaneously closed a new $150 million round
of debt financing structured and arranged by JPMorgan,
Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada and UBS who all
served as co-leads. Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC
also participated in the bank financing.
Legendary
will use the proceeds of these transactions to retire
and refinance debt incurred in connection with its 2010
recapitalisation, more than 18 months prior to its scheduled
maturity. Plans for the monies also include adding investment
and working capital as Legendary readies projects across
its filmed entertainment, publishing and television
business units.
Separately,
Legendary East expects to announce its financial and
distribution arrangements later this year. On December
31 2011, the date pre-arranged by Legendary and its
partners, Legendary East allowed its previously contemplated
business structure to lapse, enabling it to explore
relationships with new distribution and financial partners.
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