Media company Content Partners has launched new business division Content Partners Capital, a sector focused on providing private capital solutions for businesses and IP assets in the entertainment industry.
Investment banking exec Alphonse Lordo has joined Content Partners as a head of the new division overseeing the origination and portfolio management of private credit opportunities. CPC will be targeting IP-heavy business models across film, TV, and music and will invest under various credit structures to accommodate a company’s capital needs. The division has already provided debt financing to Media Capital Technologies to support its film slate transaction with Lionsgate.
Best known as the owner of Revolution Studios, co-owner of the “CSI” TV franchise and rights holder for films including “13 Going on 30,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Black Swan” and more films, Content Partners owns over 500 films, approximately 3,000 hours of television, and a library of titles that represents more than $33 billion of worldwide box office revenue.
The company describes the launch of the Content Partners Capital division is as a “natural evolution” that leverages Content Partners “decades of experience investing in the content space” at “a seminal moment in the entertainment industry with a unique combination of capital and strategic partnership.”
“While we continue to experience significant growth with our transactional IP investment strategy, we’re excited to now step into the next chapter of film, TV, and music sector investment: providing the capital and strategic partnership to help businesses grow,” Content Partners co-founder and CEO Steve Kram said.
Kram added, “Content Partners Capital will support companies across the entertainment industries. We’re thrilled to welcome Alphonse to the team to lead us in this new direction and pave the way for incredible growth to come.”
Most recently, Lordo served as managing director at Truist Securities, where he was the sector head for entertainment. Lordo told Variety the new Capital Partners division was birthed through “a combination of growth at Content Partners and product opportunity for private credit in the entertainment industry.”
“Content Partners continues to experience tremendous growth and a natural evolution of the business was to add additional product offerings,” Lordo said. “The team has deep industry relationships and expertise in the film, TV, and music sectors, and because of this can originate proprietary deal flow. From a production standpoint, we believe there is a fundamental lack of capital for companies in the entertainment sectors and limited competition for private credit on deal sizes under $100mm. We aim to fill that void and provide flexible credit structures in various forms, such as 1st lien, 2nd lien, mezzanine, structured financings, etc. ”