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SGF to invest $14 million in Cinégroupe
Montréal, Vancouver, July 16, 2001 – Jacques Pettigrew, President and C.E.O. of CinéGroupe Corporation and Claude Blanchet, Chairman, President and CEO of Société générale de financement (SGF) are pleased to announce an investment of $14 million in equity capital by SGF Tech.
This partnership is designed to foster the growth of CinéGroupe, the animation partner of Lions Gate Entertainment (AMEX and TSE:LFG), as a world leader in the production of quality children and family entertainment. This investment will allow CinéGroupe to continue to integrate the traditional and digital technologies including 3D animation and interactive digital products.
The three partners agree that SGF’s investment enhances CinéGroupe’s revenue potential and creates tremendous growth opportunity for CinéGroupe’s shared business with Lions Gate, increases the underlying value of their partnership and opens up a wide range of new business prospects for CinéGroupe individually and the Lions Gate family overall. They also pointed out that the investment is another key step in the creation of strategic partnerships that advance CinéGroupe’s and Lions Gate’s overall business plan and enhance their leadership in the creation and distribution of entertainment programming to all media.
CinéGroupe has been a leader in all phases of animation production for 15 years and has integrated digital technologies into its programming for the past three years. The company currently has five animation series in production or pre-production. Its high-quality, award-winning programming is seen on major networks in 125 countries, including: Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, TELETOON and Super Écran in Canada; NBC, the Disney Channel, Fox Family, Fox Kids Network and PBS in the United States; and TF1 (France), ARD (Germany), RAI (Italy) and Antenna 3 (Spain) in Europe. CinéGroupe’s digital video games are sold throughout North America and Europe.
CinéGroupe is a leading integrated entertainment company dedicated to the development, production, post-production and distribution of hit animation and family programming, as well as interactive products for the Canadian and worldwide markets. Headquartered in Montreal, with an office in Los Angeles, CinéGroupe currently has over 400 creative and dedicated employees. CinéGroupe is a partner of Lions Gate Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide. Find CinéGroupe online at www.cinegroupe.com.
SGF Tech is a subsidiary of the Société générale de financement du Québec whose mission is to carry out economic development projects meeting normal profitability requirements, in collaboration with business partners. Since it was restructured in 1998, SGF has generated investments of about $4.4 billion, creating over 19,400 direct and indirect jobs in the operating phase, not counting the thousands of jobs created during the construction phase. As at September 30, 2000, SGF’s consolidated assets totaled $2.2 billion. SGF has 52 international partners operating in Québec. (sgfqc.com)
Lions Gate Entertainment is a leader in the creation and distribution of filmed entertainment content through its four core businesses –Motion Pictures, Television, Animation and Studio Facilities– as well as its CinemaNow digital media platform. The Lions Gate brand is synonymous with fresh, cutting edge, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
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Marie-Christine Dufour
CineGroupe
E-mail:
Lynda Leith
Société générale de financement
Peter D. Wilkes
Wilkes Communications
E-mail:
Gordon Keep
Lions Gate Entertainment
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