Fortis Bank Funds European Digital Cinema Roll Out

Bookmark and Share

Sun, 03/22/2009 - 20:00 -- Nick Dager

Fortis Bank has committed to funding the first tranche of 50 million Euros for the financing of XDC's roll out of digital cinema equipment across Europe pursuant to its mandate to arrange 100-million Euro financing.  The credit facility will be available for draw down upon fulfillment of certain conditions including satisfactory documentation. This financing will be upon closing expected by mid April the first major financing deal in the European digital cinema industry and will further enhance XDC's position as a major player in the European market. Last year XDC executed Digital Cinema Deployment Agreements with six major Hollywood studios after which the company started the first deployment with European exhibitors and the support of European distributors. The commitment by Fortis Bank to provide this financing which was seen as the missing link will now enable XDC to complete the first phase of the Virtual Print Fee based roll out. With the total 100 million Euros XDC will be able to finance more than 2 000 digital screens across different European countries. In parallel within this scope XDC raised in December 2008 an additional six million Euros funding of which three million Euros from its existing shareholders and three million Euros coming from Société Régionale d'Investissement de Wallonie.