Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures is reportedly the latest Hollywood firm to come under Chinese control. Anhui Xinke New Materials, a company primarily involved in copper processing and manufacturing wires and cables, has acquired an 80% stake in Midnight Investments, the owner of finance, production and sales outfit Voltage. The sale price, according to Reuters, is 2.39B yuan ($350M). Voltage could not be reached at the time of writing.
As Chinese companies increasingly diversify, Anhui Xinke earlier this month set up Wotaiji International Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary established to buy media assets. The deal follows such moves on Hollywood by the Middle Kingdom as Tang Media Partners’ acquisition of a majority stake in IM Global and Wanda’s $3.5B purchase of Legendary Entertainment, and more recently, its $1B takeover of dick clark productions.
Other Chinese groups with money in Hollywood include Tencent, Alibaba, Huayi Brothers, Fosun and Hony Capital. The reported acquisition of Voltage suggests little slowdown in the flow, despite questions of how a Donald Trump presidency will affect dealmaking between the two countries.
Chartier founded Voltage in 2005, growing the library to over 150 features. Those include six-time Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, and Dallas Buyers Club which won three Academy Awards.
Upcoming projects include Wind River with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, which it co-financed. Sales titles on its recent AFM slate include The Professor And The Madman with Mel Gibson and Sean Penn; Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me; and Rob Reiner’s Shock And Awe. In Toronto, CAA and Voltage sold U.S. rights on Anne Hathaway-starrer Colossal to a mystery Chinese buyer.
Sourced from Deadline.com – written by Nancy Tartaglione