Macquarie Film Corporation

The Macquarie Film Corporation was a short-lived Australian film finance company that operated from 2002 to 2006. It was an offshoot of Macquarie Bank Limited.

The MFC was one of only two companies licensed under the Film Licensed Investment Company Act 1998. This was a scheme proposed by David Gonski in his 1997 Review of Commonwealth Assistance to the Film Industry. Investors received 100 per cent tax concessions for buying shares in a Film Licensed Investment Company (FLIC), which, in turn, invested in qualifying Australian programs. The goal was to spread investors' risk across a slate of productions instead of single projects. The other licence was granted to Content Capital Ltd. Each company could raise up to $20 million in capital over two financial years, ending June 2000. The Federal Minister for the Arts, Peter McGauran, said that:

Both companies achieve a balance between commercial and cultural imperatives, through the people associated with the companies, and in the philosophies guiding their business plans. Content Capital's strengths lie in its film industry expertise and experience, and in its commitment to development of emerging and existing talent. Macquarie Film Corporation's strengths are in the substantial capital and corporate structure supporting the company and its portfolio approach to investment. The variation in approach, and the equal division of concessional capital between these two companies, will help in the evaluation of the scheme and provide an opportunity to assess different operating models.

Charles Wheeler, an executive director of Macquarie Bank and director of the MFC said the company expected the venture to make pre-tax returns of 20 to 25 per cent and hoped to eventually be able to finance films offshore:

We are hoping to become a major player in the finance entertainment industry in Australia and this is perhaps the start of more activity in this area.. It's a huge potential industry and there's virtually no limit to the amount of money one could invest in film, provided you have a global focus... We think there is a formula by which you can make money from film, but to do that you have to focus on commercial productions, and the more commercial they are, the better... It's the first time this idea has been tried in Australia, so to make it attractive to investors it's important there's some tax advantage. But we are hopeful that by the end of this pilot scheme we will have sufficient evidence to demonstrate ... that film is a very viable investment and they don't need the incentives.

Macquarie also created another company, Macquarie Filmed Investments, to manage MFC's investments and oversee strategy in return for a management fee.

Others on the Board of MFC were Bryan Lowe (Chief Executive), Russell Leslie, Kerrie Mather, Michael McMichael, and James Mitchell, former General Manager of Beyond International. "It will be interesting to see how Macquarie Bank ... make creative decisions about the projects they will support," said one industry observer.

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