Ingenious Ventures, a specialist manager of Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and part of Ingenious, has launched its fourth Shelley Media Fund, providing a unique opportunity for investment in the fast-growing entertainment sector.
The fund will invest in companies producing film, television programmes and video games, which continue to exhibit strong indicators for sustained growth despite wider uncertainty in the macro-economic environment.
Ingenious Ventures anticipate that the Fund will generate tax free returns of 13.6% pa (a gross equivalent return of 27.2% pa for a 50% taxpayer).
The fund is an HMRC approved EIS fund, and investors can benefit from the new uplift in EIS income tax relief to 30% against 2011/12 income tax liability. This tax relief limits investor risk, but the clear objective of the fund manager is to further limit risk and maximise potential returns by identifying production opportunities underpinned by attractive minimum revenue streams.
With Shelley Media Fund 4, Ingenious has now made this exciting growth sector more accessible for the wider market, having lowered the minimum investment amount to just GBP3,000.
Ingenious is a leading promoter of Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) investments, currently managing more than 130 EIS qualifying media companies with a total fund raise in excess of GBP250m. Ingenious has extensive investment experience in the entertainment sector, with over USD10bn under management. It has backed many commercially successful projects including the highest grossing film of all time Avatar and over 300 hours of TV programming for ITV, BBC, SKY and PBS, such as Foyle’s War and Law & Order: UK.
Stephen Fuss, Investment Manager at Ingenious Media Investments Limited, says: “We are very excited to be launching the fourth of our successful Shelley Media Funds, maintaining our focus on capital preservation and the potential to achieve significant returns from commercially viable opportunities in the Entertainment sector.
“After one year of operation, the performance of the first Shelley Media Fund is in line with launch forecasts and we are anticipating a large increase in investment this year as a result of the uplift in EIS income tax relief to 30% and our excellent track record in delivering anticipated returns on our EIS investments.”
Feature films remain a popular and cheap form of entertainment in times of reduced disposable income and the rapid development and implementation of new distribution platforms and delivery technologies provide the producers of high quality entertainment content with broader revenue generating opportunities. Worldwide revenues from filmed entertainment through theatrical release, video/DVD and digital are anticipated to grow to USD107.5 billion by 2014 from 2009’s level of USD85.1 billion.1
The fund will not solely focus on film – the UK also boasts the largest television market in Europe and total television subscription and licence fees in the UK are forecast to increase from GBP11.4 billion at an annual rate of approximately 3.9%, reaching GBP13.7 billion in 20141. In addition, the console games market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.5%.
