US Joint Venture Agreement For Pinewood Shepperton

Pinewood Shepperton plc, has announced a joint venture to be named Pinewood Atlanta, with with River’s Rock llc.
River's Rock Ilc is an independently managed trust of the Cathy family.
The joint venture will work to initially develop 288 acres of land south of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, into world class studio facilities for the production of film, television, music and video games.
The land and studio construction costs will be funded by equity from River’s Rock and a debt facility from Synovus Bank.
The business will operate under the Pinewood trademark and Pinewood has received 40% of the shareholding in the joint venture. It will also provide the joint venture with sales and marketing services.
Pinewood Atlanta will allow producers access to attractive fiscal incentives from the State of Georgia, within a conveniently located, secure hub in the USA for productions to base themselves.
Construction is expected to commence immediately.
Elsewhere, Pinewood has said its trading for the financial year ending 31 March 2013, was in line with management expectations. It added that outlook for the new financial year across all the firm's revenue streams continue to reflect strong demand.
While the Company's planning application for the proposed £200m project to increase the capacity at Pinewood Studios by 100,000sqm of additional facilities, will be heard by South Bucks District Council on 15 May.
The project is expected to create an additional 3,100 jobs and produce an additional £149m in Gross Value Added.
www.pinewoodgroup.com
(JP/CD)