Film veterans to lead new JPMorgan unit
Expanding its already close relationship with Hollywood, investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase has formed an entertainment advisory unit that will be headed by two former top studio executives.
The group, JPMorgan Entertainment Advisors, will counsel studios, production companies, new-media outfits and investors on financial and strategic business issues.
Chosen to lead the unit are former Sony Pictures Entertainment senior executives Alan Levine and Ken Lemberger, both of whom have decades of experience working at studios and as entertainment lawyers. JPMorgan entertainment banker David Shaheen also joins the group.
“To me, this is transformational for our business,” said John Miller, head of JPMorgan’s Entertainment Industries Group, who will oversee the unit.
Miller, one of the deans of Hollywood banking, has worked on financing deals with virtually all the major studios and independent film companies.
Miller said the group could go beyond the traditional role of arranging debt for companies by raising capital through private placements and stock offerings, helping restructuring businesses, advising on management issues and securing production, distribution and licensing arrangements.
Levine, who most recently was counsel to the entertainment law firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffleman & Cook, said that the unit hoped to establish long-term relationships by advising on a variety of issues that affect the motion picture, television, video and digital sectors.
Lemberger said that in addition to advising start-ups, the unit would help existing businesses expand and reinvent their operations.
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