The Monetary Providers Compensation Scheme has opened an investigation into media funding agency Nice Level Funding Ltd (FRN 606798) after the agency entered collectors’ voluntary liquidation on 30 July.
London-based Nice Level has been authorised by the FCA since July 2014. It’s an enterprise funding scheme (EIS)/seed enterprise funding scheme (SEIS) supervisor.
The agency additionally supplied discretionary administration companies to an property planning service and helped present backing for quite a few movie and tv ventures, together with main films similar to The Return, which is because of be launched in December.
Based on the FCA, the agency supplied discretionary and various funding fund administration companies by way of a variety of investee firms working within the world artistic industries sector. It managed the Selective Tv Manufacturing EIS 6 (the EIS 6 Fund).
Based on the corporate’s personal web site, Nice Level was, «on the coronary heart of the leisure enterprise» and managed investments within the areas of movie and tv manufacturing finance, the development and administration of studio complexes in each the US and UK and enterprise capital, in addition to offering government manufacturing and gross sales and distribution companies to the sector.
On its LinkedIn web page, the corporate described itself as being «based in 2013 by Jim Reeve and Robert Halmi Jr. Primarily based in Embankment, London, we’re a boutique media enterprise specialising within the improvement and exploitation of mental property in leisure media, the distribution of media content material for theatrical, tv, and on-line platforms in addition to media challenge finance and various investments (EIS, SEIS and BPR).»
It stated it supported quite a few productions because of be launched this yr together with film The Return, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and different movies that includes Michael Fassbender, Rosamund Pike and Aaron Eckhart. None of those actors are linked to the collapse of the agency.
Its final submit on LinkedIn was in February, saying the unhappy dying of founder Jim Reeve.
Nice Level entered collectors’ voluntary liquidation on 30 July with Andrew Charters, Chris Laverty and Nick Nicholson of Grant Thornton LLP in Manchester appointed as joint liquidators.
The agency was positioned into liquidation following the insolvency of Nice Level Media Restricted, the agency’s mother or father, and with restricted funds accessible on the enterprise, its director took steps to put it into liquidation.
The launching of the investigation means the FSCS is now open to buyer claims in opposition to Nice Level. Nevertheless no claims will likely be resolved whereas the probe is undertaken.
The FSCS stated: “Though we’re accepting claims in opposition to Nice Level, they won’t be instantly handed to our claims processing groups for evaluation. It’s because we will likely be investigating the agency to see if any claims meet the qualifying situations for compensation, and this may increasingly take a while.”
The FSCS added: “This will likely be a posh investigation and we anticipate working very carefully with the joint liquidators.”
The FCA stated the joint liquidators will likely be writing shortly to traders to elucidate what the collectors’ voluntary liquidation means and what to do if they’ve investments within the EIS 6 Fund.