Memery Crystal advised Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment on its ground-breaking $125 million securitisation of the Intellectual Property in the Got Talent Franchise. The Got Talent Franchise includes America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent formats that have been commissioned in 72 territories worldwide.
Founded by Simon Cowell, Syco is a holding company that includes his ownership share in the successful Got Talent television format through its subsidiary Maidmetal Limited. The Got Talent format holds the Guinness World Records title for highest number of adaptations, and airs in 194 countries around the world to an estimated audience of over 1 billion viewers.
The complex transaction, the first of its kind, used a structure more commonly applied to the music-industry’s royalty income streams. It included securitisation of various aspects of the Got Talent Intellectual Property, which comprise production margins and fees, digital income, franchise and original content sales, and sponsorship income.
Commenting on the transaction, Ian Rosenblatt OBE said: “Leveraging royalty income streams is common in the music industry but this was a first for the securitisation of the IP of media formats. As a result of this complex transaction Got Talent’s passive royalty income stream can be deployed today to drive Syco’s ambitious acquisitive and organic growth plans.”
The Memery Crystal team was led by Ian Rosenblatt OBE and Christopher Allen; Ian Rosenblatt is also Director of Syco. ACF was the lead bank and advised Syco in both the UK and the US.
