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.