Prime Focus Group, India’s leading VFX and creative house, is selling its 30 per cent stake in Digital Domain-Reliance for $30 million to the company’s majority shareholder, Digital Domain Holdings.
The shares of DDHL (Digital Domain Holdings Ltd.) are listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited as it is headquartered in Hong Kong. DDHL owns the other 70 percent in Digital Domain-Reliance.
The plans didn’t end here for Prime Focus had further endeavours. Prime Focus and DDHL also said that they plan to form a joint venture in India, which would offer services to the advertising and virtual-reality markets. Therefore, both the parties have entered into a proposed 50:50 joint venture. The move will allow the firm to invest more in the advertising and virtual reality side of the business.
According to a joint statement, the total consideration payable to Prime Focus via issuance of DDHL shares for the 30 percent stake and the planned joint venture is $55 million. This would result in Prime Focus owning a 3.5 percent stake in DDHL.
Last year, Prime Focus’ creative services division Prime Focus World merged its VFX business with London-based Double Negative. Providing extensive VFX for Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Interstellar, Double Negative recently won the Oscars for its work on Ex Machina.
As far as Digital Domain is concerned, it was originally co-founded in 1993 by Oscar-winning director James Cameron (Avatar). The company received a couple of Academy Awards for its VFX work on Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. On the advertising front, Digital Domain’s advertising division has been providing digital imagery and animation for television commercials working with top commercial directors. The company was jointly acquired in an auction by China’s Galloping Horse and Reliance MediaWorks.
