Pinewood Shepperton to form joint venture with River Rock llc

Pinewood Shepperton, a provider of services to the film and television industry, has unveiled a joint venture to be named Pinewood Atlanta with River's Rock llc, an independently managed trust of the Cathy family.

The company said that the joint venture would work to initially develop 288 acres of land south of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, into world class studio facilities for the production of film, television, music and video games.

The land and studio construction costs would be funded by equity from River's Rock and a debt facility from Synovus Bank, Pinewood added.

Under the terms of the agreement, the business is to operate under the Pinewood trademark and Pinewood said it had received 40% of the shareholding in the joint venture.

Ivan Dunleavy, Chief Executive Officer of Pinewood, said: "Today's agreement is another step forward for the Pinewood brand internationally. This new studio will target US productions. Georgia has excellent fiscal incentives and a great crew base. With River's Rock we have a well-resourced partner that is committed to building a first class studio facility."

Jim Pace, Managing Partner, River's Rock llc, said: "We are tremendously excited to be creating a world class studio in the state of Georgia and are looking forward to working with Pinewood in the many years to come. The Pinewood brand is so well recognized in the global film industry and together there is a great opportunity to build an excellent facility that will attract the very best producers."

Trading update: results 'in line with management expectations'Trading for the financial year ended March 31st 2013 was 'in line with management expectations', the company said, adding that the outlook for the year across all revenue streams continued to reflect strong demand.

Pinewood's share price was down 0.04% to 278.38p at 10:23 on Monday.

MF