In a sign of bullishness about the entertainment industry, private equity firm Shamrock Capital Advisors LLC has closed its $250 Million Entertainment IP Fund.
The fund is focused on acquiring or financing entertainment intellectual property rights across a diverse group of assets that have been through their initial window of release, including films, television programming, music publishing rights, recorded music masters and video games. It’s the first fund of its type for Shamrock, which said the entity is an extension of its long-term strategy of providing buyout and growth capital investments in companies in the media, entertainment and communications industries.
Shamrock said the fund’s limited partners are a mix of existing and new investors to Shamrock from pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices and financial institutions.
“The launch of EIP reflects an exciting new chapter in our firm’s storied history and capitalizes on our deep roots and connections across the global entertainment industry,” said Shamrock partner Steve Royer in a statement. “Our ability to look across the industry and apply capital through our multi-fund strategies represents a unique opportunity for Shamrock to partner and transact with numerous industry constituents in many new and interesting ways.”
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EIP is led by Patrick Russo, a co-founder of Salter Group, who joined Shamrock as a partner in late 2014 to pursue this new strategy for the firm. To support the new fund, Shamrock also hired Jason Sklar (former executive director with JP Morgan’s Entertainment Industries Group) as a managing director, Andrew Landenberger (formerly with MGM) as a VP and Zoltan Kraus (formerly with Legendary Entertainment) as a senior associate.
“We have assembled a sophisticated team with extensive experience in forecasting, valuing and financing entertainment content,” Russo said. “We believe our team’s deep industry knowledge and transactional experience, when combined with Shamrock’s platform, legacy and track record of successfully investing in the global media, entertainment and communications industries create a uniquely positioned investment opportunity for our investors.”
EIP is managed by Shamrock from an office in Los Angeles with approximately $1.8 billion of assets under management. Shamrock did not use a placement agent for EIP.
Shamrock’s current investments include Consilio, FanDuel, Giant Creative/Strategy, Isolation Network, Mobilitie, Questex, Recorded Books, Screenvision, Silvergate Media and Wazee Digital.
“Diversifying our investment strategy is a natural expansion of leveraging Shamrock’s history,” Russo told Variety. “We have a great track record of investments.”
Shamrock traces its roots back to 1978, when the predecessor firm was founded as the investment company for the late Roy E. Disney. In 2010, Shamrock’s private equity activities were formally separated from Shamrock Holdings.
In February, Shamrock Capital Advisors closed Shamrock Capital Growth Fund IV, a $700 million fund focused on providing buyout and growth capital investments in companies within the media, entertainment and communications industries. It was the fourth such fund raised and managed by Shamrock Capital.
(Jason Sklar is pictured in the photo)
