Mumbai: Vistas Media Acquisition Company Inc.(Nasdaq: VMACU) (“VMAC”), commenced trading of its $100 million initial public offering (IPO) on The Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday 7th August 2020. The offering consists of 10,000,000 units at a price to the public of $10.00 per unit. VMAC is a blank check company, also commonly referred to as a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC, formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities in the Global Media and Entertainment sector.
VMAC is led by CEO Mr. F. Jacob Cherian, based in New York and former chief executive officer of two Nasdaq listed SPACs and Singapore based NRI media entrepreneurs & Co-Founders, Mr. Saurabh Gupta and Mr. Abhayanand Singh.
Mr. Saurabh Gupta is the Managing Director of M! Capital Ventures (Singapore) and the Managing Partner of The Asian Film Fund – Series 1 (Mauritius), two media investment firms with investments in over 12 films, across productions and distributions in India and Hollywood, including The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir starring Dhanush and Berenice Bejo.
Mr. Abhayanand Singh is the Group CEO of Vistas Media Capital (“VMC”, “Company”), a Singapore based integrated media investment holding company in the business of content production & distribution from Hollywood to Bollywood and other Indian Regional content. VMC also owns the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival (Sg.SAIFF), the South Asian Film Market (SAFM) and co-owns the Critics’ Choice Film Awards (CCFA) and the Critics’ Choice Short & Series Awards (CCSSA), jointly with Motion Content Group and the Film Critics Guild of India, led by Anupama Chopra.
Started in 2018, Vistas Media Capital, is the parent of the sponsor entity of VMAC. Mr. Piiyush Singh, VMC’s India partner, who develops, acquires, manages and executes all production and distribution projects for VMC, across Bollywood and Regional content in India, is also the Advisor for VMAC. Recently, their board of advisory was strengthened with the addition of the visionary leader Raj Nayak, who will play a critical role in launching a few of their upcoming media initiatives and business growth plans in India.
Golden Ratio Films, a fully owned subsidiary of Vistas Media Capital, has been very active in the Indian content space with their released and upcoming slate in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil films and series. Recently, VMC added another feather in their hat with the critically acclaimed movie ‘Bhonsle’ which premiered on SonyLIV on June 26th, 2020. ‘Bhonsle’ is the second film from the production house to be launched on an OTT platform, the first one being ‘AB Aani CD’ on Amazon Prime Video. The Company at present aims to introduce new initiatives and more content in Hindi, Tamil and Marathi, in the India market.
In 2019, Golden Ratio Films presented and distributed films like ‘Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?’, ‘Nakkash’ and ‘The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir’ both in English and Tamil. VMC has further developed and produced, a slate of 18 projects jointly with Mr. Piiyush Singh, across films and series for India, which are at different stages of production and release.
