REinvent Studios secures pivotal €26 Million guarantee loan from the EU

The agreement between Rikke Ennis’ international sales, packaging and financing company and the European Investment Fund (EIF) was just concluded by the partners and is effective now.

The financial facility managed by EIF is part of the European Commission’s Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS-GF) to support small and medium sized companies (SME) in accessing affordable debt financing for their projects. The guarantees are provided free-of-charge by CCS-GF.

Under the deal, REinvent’s financing division REinvent Finance has access to a €26 million guarantee, with transaction defaults covered at a maximum 70%, and individual transactions capped at €2 million. The guarantee lasts a maximum 10 years and REinvent has three years from signature to find projects.

Rikke Ennis, REinvent Studios’ CEO says the agreement which took more than two years to finalise, is ground-breaking as the first of its kind in the Nordics between the EIF and a private company, not with a bank. “I believe what EIF found interesting in our application is that as a company, we have shown due diligence, we are a lean, simple organisation, 100% Danish. We know the audiovisual industry, those who will need the money, and we will boost the entire Nordic film and TV sector,” she states.

For Ennis, the advantages of the new EIF Guarantee are multiple, both for the Nordic industry and for REinvent Studios, especially under Covid-19.

• On an industry standpoint, she says the ‘REinvent Finance’ guarantee mechanism will make it easier to raise gap and top-up financing, “which is always the hardest to raise,” she notes.
• It will also bring efficiency to the financing process, and help producers reduce the time to raise financing for a project.
• Thirdly, as a new Nordic-based financial intermediary, focusing on Nordic content, REinvent Finance offers producers and right owners an alternative to existing lending partners such as French Cofiloisirs and Coficiné.
  

Ennis adds: “Ultimately, this deal is very much about helping rights holders keep their rights in the digital world. If you own and keep IP, it will have value down the line, it’s like saving for your pension,” she says, underlining the important role of sales agents to make rights go as far as possible.

For REinvent, Ennis says her new lending facility will allow her company “to invest more in Nordic film and TV content. “This doesn’t necessarily mean we will take more risks, but it will be easier for us to secure more projects of high quality, to keep the IP in Nordic hands and to be more competitive in the market.”

Helene Aurø, sales and marketing director adds: “We are already investing in MGs, helping companies with bridge financing, equity, gap investments, but this will give us even bigger muscle and a plan for the next three years.”

Aurø also underlines that as a loan guarantee from EU private capital, REinvent’s new financing facility comes on top of public funding and will boost the entire film & TV industry in the Nordics.

Asked if REinvent’s stronger financial muscle will alter its editorial strategy, Aurø said: “We will invest in more projects, but with the same focus on good stories that can travel, whatever the genre and format.” “English-language projects will be potential contenders, only if there is a Nordic angle,” she said.

Set up in 2018 by the former TrustNordisk CEO Ennis and former Filmcash CEO Frederik Nelsson, the company has fast-established itself as the biggest Nordic-based sales, packaging and financing group, specialised in Nordic content.

At this week’s Göteborg Film Festival’s TV Drama Vision and Nordisk Film Market, REinvent is representing a large range of high-quality content.

On the TV side, REinvent handles among others the Icelandic series Fractures (RÚV) to be showcased in the ‘Coming Next from the Nordics’ session, as well the Swedish drama A Royal Secret (SVT), directed by the UK/Swedish Lisa James Larsson (Victoria, Britannia), to be pitched as work in progress.

REinvent Studios is also co-producer of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize Norwegian nominee Welcome to Utmark (HBO), produced by Paradox.

On the film side, as SF Studios’ exclusive film sales agent, REinvent is associated to the anticipated works in progress The Pact by Bille August, Margrete-Queen of the North by Charlotte Sieling, and The Emigrants by Erik Poppe.

REinvent is also co-producer of the Norwegian project Nothing to Laugh About by Petter Næss, produced by Hummelfilm.