Ethanol Ventures is promoted by Future Capital Partners, one of the UK's market leading providers of innovative financial products and services. Future is a leading structured finance and alternative investment boutique that has raised more than £6 billion of investment between 2000 and 2008. Future brings together asset owners looking to reduce their cost and risk of ownership, with investors looking for non-correlated alternative investments providing above average post-tax returns. Future is actively structuring investment opportunities in a variety of asset classes including transport, media, property, life sciences and renewable energy.
Future has originated and placed over £6 billion of transactions since it was formed in 2000; it has conducted operations in the UK, Germany and Australia, and has arranged structured finance funding for The Walt Disney Company, GE Universal, Miramax Films, AOL Time Warner, The Weinstein Company and many other leading film production and distribution companies. Recent films include parts II and III of a major US Studio franchise with budgets of over $400m, The Break-Up, Kill Bill Volume 2 and Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist.
Future works with a range of leading financial institutions, including Barclays, HSBC, HBOS, and the Bank of Ireland. Other partners, advisers and channels to investor market include Richards Butler LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, SJ Berwin LLP, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Ernst and Young LLP, KPMG LLP, MRI Moores Rowland LLP and Grant Thornton LLP.
FCP also owns notable interests in other businesses:
- 20% of Ethanol Ventures Limited. Ethanol Ventures is a company that has provided bridge financing to Vireol PLC, a business planning to build two "wheat to bioethanol" plants in the UK.
- 7.5% of PACO - a German Limited Partnership providing wholesale marketing services to distributors of filmed entertainment in Germany.
- 50% of IFE Equity LLC. This entity owns a 33% stake in Incentive Filmed Entertainment LLC, a US film production and sales company formed by US Talent Agent, William Morris.
Future Capital Partners is ultimately owned by a Dutch parent, White River B.V. White River has made a number of strategic investments in related businesses, which should create synergies for the broader group. These investments include:
Novia Financial PLC is a start up that will provide a technology based services to providers of UK Financial Advisory Services and Products - these services are referred to as a Wrap Platform. The Platform provides investment tools, electronic dealing and record keeping, investment supermarket services and fund aggregation in return for fees from end user investors, being a small percentage of assets held on the Platform.
- Aramid Asset Management Limited
Aramid Asset Management is a Cayman based Hedge Fund and Hedge Fund Manager Incubator and a third pard fund raiser - primarily focussed on the Institutional Investment market globally. The other Members of AAM include Stonehenge (a Private Equity business managing $800m based in Louisiana) and the service company of two individuals, Sean Flannagan and Mark Brooke, who have raised $450m of Institutional capital in the last 2 years.
- Aramid Capital Partners Limited
Aramid Capital Partners is a Limited Partnership that acts as Technical Adviser to the Aramid Entertainment Fund Limited (a Cayman Islands Open Ended Investment Company). The Fund, of which Tim Levy (FCP's CEO) is also a director, provides asset backed loans to the Entertainment industry, has an NAV at September 2008 of approximately $325m and in the 2 years it has existed has generated an average annual net IRR to investors of about 17% - with positive returns every single month.
- Filmaka
Filmaka is a Virtual Community for creative content producers and a supplier of media content to film, computer games and television companies, advertisers and merchandisers. It was founded in January 2007.
Together with Ethanol Ventures, Future Capital Partners Ltd is also the proud sponsor of the 2009 Sky Car Expedition. Neil Laughton and his team have developed the world's first flying Parajet Skycar and after rigorous testing will travel from London across the Sahara to Tombouctou for the maiden voyage in Spring 2009. It will be the first high performance, road legal, carbon neutral flying car capable of providing sports and rally car performance on or off the road and light aircraft performance after just a few minutes of wing preparation. The team at Vireol are working closely with Neil and his team to convert the engine to use our fuel for their expedition. Manufacture and combustion of this fuel is more efficient thereby helping to reduce emissions. For more details on this unique expedition see www.skycarexpedition.com
