China’s Bona Film Group, Singapore private equity fund Tembusu Partners and Singapore entrepreneur Calvin Cheng are to establish a US$100 million fund targeted at China’s media and entertainment industry.
The fund will be one of the first non-Reminbi dominated funds to invest in China’s media sector and aims to leverage Singapore’s legal framework, co-production treaties and and status as a financial hub to attract investors from and outside the region.
The closed-end five-year media fund will be formalized on March 31, 2015, with fund raising to begin theareafter. Anchor investors are likely to include Bona Film Group and Thailand’s Chia Tai Group. The fund will target media companies, content and technologies as investment targets.
"The existing film and TV co-production agreement between Singapore and China opens up opportunities for the fund to invest in projects that involve Singapore-based media companies. In addition, we will be looking at media companies globally that have a ‘China-story’," said Cheng, a former member of parliament who Cheng is the executive director and co-founder of models to publishing group Lumina-Looque International.
Singapore’s Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and the Second Minister for Communications and Information, Lawrence Wong, was a witness to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the three parties.
(Origin title: "China’s Bona and Singapore’s Tembusu To Create $100 Million Private Equity Fund")