Oscar-winning visual effects group The Mill has been acquired in a management buy-out (MBO) from 3i. The Carlyle Group’s technology fund, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, backed the deal.
Oscar-winning visual effects group The Mill has been acquired in a management buy-out (MBO) from 3i. The Carlyle Group’s technology fund, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, backed the deal.
The Mill’s management team was led by chief executive Robin Shenfield, who founded the business with Pat Joseph in 1990. Joseph will stay with the business post-deal.
Carlyle and the buy-out team are now looking to grow the business in the US and UK. Chris Hodges from Carlyle says that ‘In an increasingly competitive media space, we believe high-end video-based advertising will continue to play a fundamentally important role in brand strategy’.
The Mill specialises in post-production special effects. It has worked for Sony PlayStation, Honda and Guinness, and won an Oscar for its work on the film Gladiator. The company also owns Beam.TV, which delivers digital advertising using the internet.
Based in London, The Mill operates in New York and Los Angeles and employs more than 230 people worldwide.
Carlyle was advised by Latham & Watkins, Spectrum Strategy Consultants and PricewaterhouseCoopers. LongAcre Partners and Osborne Clarke acted for The Mill, while Jamieson Corporate Finance and Dickson Minto advised its management.
The Royal Bank of Scotland provided funding for the transaction.
