New Sparta Ltd, an investment company founded by City investor Jerome Booth, has entered the movie business to acquire Icon Film Distribution and Icon Home Entertainment UK from the Icon Group for an undisclosed sum.
Booth, who also acquired UK telecoms outfit New Call in July, completed the Icon deal through his New Sparta investment vehicle, formed with the intention of investing in film, telecoms and news publishing. The sale of Icon Film Distribution leaves Icon UK focused on film production and financing.
“One of the things that attracts me to film is that there’s an opportunity to eventually attract institutional investors to the sector,” he said. “I’m starting by establishing what I hope will be a reputation for transparency and fairness.”
An economist and former Head of Research at asset management company Ashmore Group, placed 425th on the Sunday Times 2013 Rich List with an estimated wealth of £189m. He is an advocate of the emerging market and is well-known within the industry for his outspoken promotion of investing in this area. Although he stepped down from his role at Ashmore Group this summer, he retains his stake in the company as their second-biggest shareholder.
After the formation of New Sparta in June, Booth quickly began to build a portfolio of film and media companies including production company New Sparta Films, which recently invested in The Silent Storm, a romantic film set on a Scottish Island starring Damian Lewis and Andrea Riseborough. Through the production company, Booth intends to focus on investing in the development and financing of films, and encourage potential investors to follow in his footsteps in the process.
In regards to the decision behind his investment, he explained: “There are a lot of people investing in films for tax reasons, or for the glamour, or because they just didn't read the small print. We can do better than that.”
Founded in 1999, Icon Film Distribution handles a library of more than 200 titles including getaway thriller Drive, horror hit Paranormal Activity and the forthcoming Postman Pat, due to be released next year. The firm’s back catalogue also features acclaimed films including Man on Wire and La Vie En Rose. Booth explained how he planned to build IFD into the “premier distribution company of choice for high quality and commercially successful film production companies.”
Booth rightly recognises the value and potential tied into the UK film and cinema industry. The UK is the world’s third largest market for filmed entertainment after the US and Japan. In 2012, UK box office revenues exceeded £1bn and some 647 films were released in the UK last year, bringing cinema admissions to 172.5m - the third highest figure in the past forty years. The core UK film industry now contributes approximately £4.3 billion per year to the UK economy – up by fifty per cent since 2000.