Middle Eastern Firm Preps Billion-Dollar Feature, Digital Investment

ABU DHABI, September 3:
Abu Dhabi Media Company is creating a new venture, imagenation abu dhabi, which
intends to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years on creating
feature films and digital content.

Abu Dhabi Media Company
owns and operates Abu Dhabi Television, Abu Dhabi Sports Channel and Emirates
Television Channel, as well as a range of print and radio assets.

Based in Abu Dhabi,
imagenation intends to align with producers in the U.S. and other international
markets to develop and produce content for distribution around the world. The
venture also aims to support Middle Eastern filmmakers and Arabic film
production.

Edward Borgerding, the CEO
of imagenation abu dhabi and Abu Dhabi Media Company, said: "With
imagenation abu dhabi, we are bringing Hollywood and the international
production community to Arabia. Our aim is to make award-winning films which
are commercially successful and appeal to audiences across the world. Our
target output of eight films every year will make imagenation abu dhabi one of
the world's top producers of feature films and establish Abu Dhabi as a leading
centre for content creation.”

Stefan Brunner, CFO of
imagenation abu dhabi, added: "Our investment strategy is modeled on
film-financing vehicles used successfully in Los Angeles, New York and London.
We believe our financial and operational structure is disciplined,
sophisticated and modern and should deliver superior returns at both financial
and creative levels."

—By Mansha Daswani