bizadvisors

Need for new fund-raising scheme in the contents industry

In recent years, innovation in information and communication technology and increase in consumer needs have brought skyrocketing development in the entertainment business in Japan. Due to the Cool Japan policy promoted by government of Japan, it has been attracting a lot of worldwide attention. Given these conditions, contents producers have to meet diversifying needs rapidly and to develop and distribute newsy contents speedily.

In the traditional entertainment business, most of contents producers had to organize a production committee for each of their projects to fund-raise upon an independently developed business plan. Accordingly, this caused contents producers to expend most of their energy to fund-raise and it took too long before each project was completed. In addition, some investors of production committee were, at the same time, industry participants, and, in some cases, conflicts among their opinion were hard to be accommodated. Such a conventional fund-raising method makes it difficult to respond to the rapid changes in consumer needs of contents.

In such matter, for dealing with consumer needs quickly and developing and producing contents timely, it is essential to raise funds for continuous investments in multiple contents.

Designing and composing financial structure

From a legal perspective, fund-raise by conventional production committee have generally adopted voluntary partnership in accordance with the Civil Code of Japan, and, because liability of partners of voluntary partnership is unlimited, there existed limitation on fund-raising. Nevertheless, amendment of Commercial Code and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, tax laws, development of new legal systems, and other easing of regulations have made fund-raising methods other than voluntary partnership more convenient, so that it has become feasible to design the best financial structure that accords with risk preference of investors and needs of producers. It has also enabled to raise capital from individuals and companies other than industry participants and to broaden investor base.

Based on the overwhelming anecdotal experience with regard to establish Film Fund, We comprehend the needs of fund-raiser of each project and design the best fund scheme. We offer analysis of track records, simulation of fund performance, assistance in negotiation with investors and other related services as well.

Fund management and reporting services

Because conventional production committee consisted almost entirely of industry participants, in fact, fund management and financial reporting have been paid little attention. Nevertheless, now that diversification of fund scheme invites individuals and companies other than industry participants as investors, the necessity of appropriate fund management and of periodic financial reporting has been growing.

To help fund managers monitor the status of fund operation, we execute fund management and other businesses left to us. We also provide clear and fair reporting service to fund investors to facilitate communication between fund managers and investors. Moreover, always keeping up with the latest legal regulation, we offer other related support, such as filing and reporting under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, incorporating special-purpose company, preparing tax returns, etc.