The Carlyle Group and Management Acquire The Mill, the Advertising Visual Effects Company

London - The Mill, the U.K. and U.S. based advertising visual effects group, today announced that it is to be acquired by The Carlyle Group, the global private equity firm, and Management for an undisclosed sum.

The Mill’s management team, led by chief executive Robin Shenfield, will own a substantial portion of the business after the transaction.

The transaction concludes The Mill’s relationship with private equity group 3i, which backed a management buyout of the business in February 2001.

Founded in London in 1990 by Robin Shenfield and Pat Joseph, The Mill is the first digital effects agency with local presence in the three key global locations for advertising production: London, New York and Los Angeles. Shenfield and Joseph have committed to remain with the business.

Bruno Mourgue d’Algue, The Carlyle Group said, "We are very pleased to have closed this acquisition. The Mill is one of a small number of businesses with the scale, creative expertise and execution abilities to perform post-production for television commercials at the highest level. We hope to work closely with the management team to grow the business in both the U.K. and the U.S.."

Chris Hodges, The Carlyle Group said, "In an increasingly competitive media space, we believe high-end video-based advertising will continue to play a fundamentally important role in brand strategy, with post-production providing impact and differentiation on television, Internet and other video platforms. The Mill’s well-invested technology base, pool of outstanding creative talent and its content distribution capability via Beam.TV enables it to provide outstanding service to its customers."

Robin Shenfield, co-founder and Chief Executive of The Mill, said, "We are delighted that The Carlyle Group has agreed to join us in acquiring The Mill. We look forward to working with the Carlyle team to consolidate the hard work and investment in the business achieved over recent years and to grow our position as a world-leading visual effects company."

The acquisition was made through Carlyle’s technology fund, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, which is dedicated to growth capital and mid-market buyout investments in Europe. The fund targets companies with a focus on technology, media and telecommunications and an enterprise value of between €25 million and €200 million. The European technology team is co-headed by David FitzGerald and Wolfgang Hanrieder.

Carlyle was advised by Latham & Watkins, Spectrum Strategy Consultants and PriceWaterhouseCoopers on the transaction. Financing for the transaction was provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Mill was advised by LongAcre Partners and Osborne Clarke. Jamieson Corporate Finance and Dickson Minto W.S advised management.

About The Mill
The Mill was recently named as the world’s Number 1 post-production house by Shots magazine, the key global publication for the trade. Its numerous award-winning productions* include work for Sony PlayStation, Honda and Guinness. It remains the only U.K. visual effects company to win an Academy Award (Gladiator, 2001).

The Mill is based in Soho, the heart of London’s advertising industry. It has more than 150 people in a 30,000 square foot production facility. The Mill’s New York operation began in 2002 with a team of six in sublet premises. It now comprises a core team of 70 housed in 15,000 square foot SoHo facility. The Los Angeles office was launched in December 2006 and includes more than 12 professional and technical staff.

The Mill also owns Beam.TV, the leading global advertising distribution business which uses the internet to deliver digital advertising across different platforms and countries. Today, around 50% of all television commercials broadcast in the U.K. are delivered by Beam.TV. The service also enables the archiving and collaboration in the development stages of an advert.