NEW YORK and SHANGHAI, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Raine Group and China Media Capital (CMC) today announced that they have formed a strategic partnership to collaborate broadly across the global media landscape.  The partnership intends to leverage the industry and geographic expertise of both firms towards select investments in the sports, entertainment and digital media sectors, both in China and around the world.  The new partnership will entail exchanging investment strategies, co-investing with each other, sharing resources and developing focused conferences for Chinese and Western media thought leaders.  

"We and Raine share the same vision -- to build Chinese media and entertainment companies into world-class institutions, to further develop the content creation industry in China, and leverage the technology, formats, innovations, and experience of the global digital media, sports and entertainment sectors into China," commented Li Ruigang, Chairman of China Media Capital.  "Raine brings us unparalleled access across the media sector through its portfolio companies, investors and strategic partners such as WME Entertainment.  We believe that by combining our resources and networks, we will bring a unique value proposition to our investments."

 "We are incredibly fortunate to have CMC, with its deep experience in the Chinese media industry and strong operating expertise, as our partner.  This unique partnership positions both Raine and CMC to pursue transformative investment opportunities," said Raine co-founder Jeff Sine.  "We believe the media sector in China is on the cusp of a significant growth trajectory, as demand for international content in China continues to increase, and Chinese media companies continue to expand globally, seeking strategic capital and partners.  Our long relationship with Li Ruigang and his team has led us to a mutual position of trust and cooperation which will create significant near-term opportunities for two-way investment flows between our firms," said Raine co-founder Joseph Ravitch.

The new partnership builds on the momentum both firms gained this year.  The Raine Group made a number of significant new investments in areas such as entertainment content creation, education and mobile data while China Media Capital announced in February a landmark partnership with DreamWorks to develop a China-focused family entertainment joint venture company and has transformed its partnership company with Newscorp, StarChina, into one of the top television production companies in China.

About The Raine Group

Founded in 2009, the Raine Group is a global merchant bank focused exclusively on entertainment, digital media and sports. Raine's co-founders are Joseph Ravitch and Jeffrey Sine, respectively the former global head of media at Goldman Sachs and the former global head of Telecom, Media and Technology and a Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at UBS, in partnership with WME Entertainment. WME is the world's leading entertainment agency encompassing television, music, film, books, literary, theater and entertainment corporate consulting.  Raine has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Palo Alto and Beijing. With a global reach, Raine focuses on growth equity investments where its deep industry experience and unique network of strategic relationships, limited partners and advisory board members can create value for portfolio companies. The Raine Group's investment portfolio includes stakes in multimedia powerhouse Vice, browser-based games giant Jagex, celebrity–curated ecommerce platform OpenSky, music festival group C3 Presents, education data company Parchment, mobile voice chat app textPlus, production house Important Studios, and Inc. company of the year Zumba Fitness. 

About China Media Capital

China Media Capital (CMC) is China's first media sector focused fund dedicated to media and entertainment investments in China and internationally. Approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for an initial fund size of RMB 5 billion, CMC's prominent founding partners include China Development Bank (CDB), one of China's largest financial institutions. CMC's investment portfolio includes stakes in OCJ, the #1 TV shopping channel in China, a joint venture share in Oriental DreamWorks together with DreamWorks Animation, a joint venture share in TVB China together with TVB, and a controlling stake in Star China, formerly News Corporation's China assets, including TV channels – Star (Xing Kong), Star (Xing Kong) International and Channel V (China) – as well as the Fortune Star movie library, which is the largest movie library across Asia.

SOURCE The Raine Group