Sparta Film Management Ltd
Sparta Film Management Ltd. (Sparta) has extensive experience and contacts within the film and TV industry and is confident of providing the potential for capital uplift when working with Investee Companies and their underlying Production Companies whilst protecting the downside risk associated with traditional equity investment in such ventures.
Sparta has assisted the Fund Manager in developing an investment strategy which is to be followed by the Fund Manager in managing the Fund and includes some strategies which may be followed by the Investee Companies and their underlying Production Companies, so that each of the Fund’s investments fall within the EIS rules. This is likely to result in each Investee Company, or where appropriate Production Company, deploying funds into each production on the basis of a combination of equity investment and provision of production services.
Lacomp and Sparta are confident that the structure offered should provide an unusual degree of risk diversification for investment into the film and TV production industry. Over a three year period there will be the potential for each Investee Company to handle up to four separate productions.
The following five directors of Sparta, using their accumulated industry and financial skills and experience, will provide the Fund Manager and its Investment Advisory Panel with advice, guidance and industry expertise relating to film and TV production opportunities.
Douglas Abbott, Executive Chairman and Finance Director is a Chartered Accountant with a background in venture capital investment management. He was a director of CIN Industrial Investments (now CINVen) from 1978 to 1983 and of Gartmore Venture Capital from 1988 to 1993. He has also worked as investment manager for UK insurer Sun Life. On behalf of these institutions, he has invested in many media projects including Goldcrest (Gandhi, The Killing Fields, Local Hero), National Video Corporation (Testament), and Acorn Pictures (Educating Rita). From 1980 to 1983 he was a non-executive director on the board of each of these companies.
In 1984 he founded Screen Production Associates Limited (“SPA”) with support from Lord Hussey and Sir Ian Trethowan. Since 1997, SPA has been arranging finance for film development and production.
He has served as financial accountant and advisor to the British Screen Advisory Council continuously since 1987.
John Wolstenholme, Managing Director, graduated from the cutting rooms to join United Media, a film and TV financing company backed by established City institutions. As its head of production and distribution for ten years, and subsequently as Managing Director, he was responsible for many hours of successful award winning entertainment including The Krays, Jamaica Inn, In a Shallow Grave, Prisoners of the Lost Universe, To the Lighthouse, Heart of the Dragon and The Baker Street Boys.
Since then, as an Executive Producer, he has worked on the production and financing of films such as Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Last of the High Kings, Muggers and Heaven Sent. He wrote the screenplay for the latter and has written for several other companies.
He has been a consultant to film & TV companies on both sides of the Atlantic and was a founding member of both the European Film Finance Association and the Media Lunch Club. He has also served as an independent expert to the European Commission’s MEDIA funding programmes in Brussels.
Ivan Clements, Director, has been involved in the film industry for over fourteen years. Having run and owned a video production company for ten years, he also has frontline experience in film production as a producer and executive producer. His skills lie in sourcing and assessing new film projects, a role that he has been undertaking for Screen Projex since 2008. He is a specialist in lower budgeted, award winning film production.
Mathew Stonehouse, Director, is an editor, director and producer with thirty years experience in film and TV, working on projects with some of the UK's finest talent including Sienna Miller, Helena Bonham-Carter, Robbie Coltrane and Terry Gilliam. A member of the British Academy for Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), he is a dedicated professional and brings a wealth of contacts and experience to the team.
Anthony Cooke, Director, has worked as a financial professional in the City of London for over twenty years, in both corporate and investment banking. He was for 12 years an international wholesale lender for two US banks; at the end of that period he was general manager of EMEA operations and a senior credit risk officer.
He subsequently moved into stockbroking and corporate finance with several international firms for a period of ten years where he provided financial advice, led flotations, and raised equity finance for a wide range of companies in the UK, Australia and in Eastern Europe. As a director with the subsidiary of a major French bank he established a specialised corporate finance department focused on Eastern Europe. He set up the first institutional investment fund for Ukraine and sourced investment opportunities around Eastern Europe for the asset management division.
Contemporaneously he was for eight years the non-executive vice chairman of an NHS Trust where he had a special brief to oversee the function of finance director; he also established and chaired the Audit Committee, was the sole non-executive member of the Strategic Risks Committee, and was a member of the Remuneration Committee.
The Fund Brochure and Application form are both available via the Downloads page.
Sparta has assisted the Fund Manager in developing an investment strategy which is to be followed by the Fund Manager in managing the Fund and includes some strategies which may be followed by the Investee Companies and their underlying Production Companies, so that each of the Fund’s investments fall within the EIS rules. This is likely to result in each Investee Company, or where appropriate Production Company, deploying funds into each production on the basis of a combination of equity investment and provision of production services.
Lacomp and Sparta are confident that the structure offered should provide an unusual degree of risk diversification for investment into the film and TV production industry. Over a three year period there will be the potential for each Investee Company to handle up to four separate productions.
The following five directors of Sparta, using their accumulated industry and financial skills and experience, will provide the Fund Manager and its Investment Advisory Panel with advice, guidance and industry expertise relating to film and TV production opportunities.
Douglas Abbott, Executive Chairman and Finance Director is a Chartered Accountant with a background in venture capital investment management. He was a director of CIN Industrial Investments (now CINVen) from 1978 to 1983 and of Gartmore Venture Capital from 1988 to 1993. He has also worked as investment manager for UK insurer Sun Life. On behalf of these institutions, he has invested in many media projects including Goldcrest (Gandhi, The Killing Fields, Local Hero), National Video Corporation (Testament), and Acorn Pictures (Educating Rita). From 1980 to 1983 he was a non-executive director on the board of each of these companies.
In 1984 he founded Screen Production Associates Limited (“SPA”) with support from Lord Hussey and Sir Ian Trethowan. Since 1997, SPA has been arranging finance for film development and production.
He has served as financial accountant and advisor to the British Screen Advisory Council continuously since 1987.
John Wolstenholme, Managing Director, graduated from the cutting rooms to join United Media, a film and TV financing company backed by established City institutions. As its head of production and distribution for ten years, and subsequently as Managing Director, he was responsible for many hours of successful award winning entertainment including The Krays, Jamaica Inn, In a Shallow Grave, Prisoners of the Lost Universe, To the Lighthouse, Heart of the Dragon and The Baker Street Boys.
Since then, as an Executive Producer, he has worked on the production and financing of films such as Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Last of the High Kings, Muggers and Heaven Sent. He wrote the screenplay for the latter and has written for several other companies.
He has been a consultant to film & TV companies on both sides of the Atlantic and was a founding member of both the European Film Finance Association and the Media Lunch Club. He has also served as an independent expert to the European Commission’s MEDIA funding programmes in Brussels.
Ivan Clements, Director, has been involved in the film industry for over fourteen years. Having run and owned a video production company for ten years, he also has frontline experience in film production as a producer and executive producer. His skills lie in sourcing and assessing new film projects, a role that he has been undertaking for Screen Projex since 2008. He is a specialist in lower budgeted, award winning film production.
Mathew Stonehouse, Director, is an editor, director and producer with thirty years experience in film and TV, working on projects with some of the UK's finest talent including Sienna Miller, Helena Bonham-Carter, Robbie Coltrane and Terry Gilliam. A member of the British Academy for Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), he is a dedicated professional and brings a wealth of contacts and experience to the team.
Anthony Cooke, Director, has worked as a financial professional in the City of London for over twenty years, in both corporate and investment banking. He was for 12 years an international wholesale lender for two US banks; at the end of that period he was general manager of EMEA operations and a senior credit risk officer.
He subsequently moved into stockbroking and corporate finance with several international firms for a period of ten years where he provided financial advice, led flotations, and raised equity finance for a wide range of companies in the UK, Australia and in Eastern Europe. As a director with the subsidiary of a major French bank he established a specialised corporate finance department focused on Eastern Europe. He set up the first institutional investment fund for Ukraine and sourced investment opportunities around Eastern Europe for the asset management division.
Contemporaneously he was for eight years the non-executive vice chairman of an NHS Trust where he had a special brief to oversee the function of finance director; he also established and chaired the Audit Committee, was the sole non-executive member of the Strategic Risks Committee, and was a member of the Remuneration Committee.
The Fund Brochure and Application form are both available via the Downloads page.
