Asian Financier Vistas Media Capital Launches North American Division Run By Industry Vet Ben Waisbren

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Singapore-based Indian financier Vistas Media Capital has launched a North American division to be run by film industry vet Ben Waisbren.The division will look to originate and underwrite investments in entertainment and IP under the stewardship of North America President Waisbren who has been an executive producer on dozens of studio movies including Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Emoji Movie, 300, The Equalizer, and 22 Jump Street.Waisbren’s expertise is in managing and structuring investments in studio co-financing partnerships, indie production and distribution deals and media private equity.

He was a long-time member of the board of directors at Wild Bunch.The former Winston & Strawn lawyer was previously on the board of Vistas Media Acquisition Company, which is a Nasdaq-listed SPAC that recently reverse merged (de-SPAC) with the leading music streaming platform in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, Anghami, resulting in the first Arab tech company to be listed on Nasdaq.Vistas will be on the lookout for foreign-language IP that can be turned into English language content and vice versa.Vistas Media Capital, run by Indian exec Abhayanand Singh, has previously provided risk capital for content development and production in the U.S.

Vistas’ feature film division, Golden Ratio Films, recently partnered with Appian Way (The Revenant) to co-finance and co-produce Pep, a feature biopic about legendary boxer Willie Pep.

The entity earlier invested in the road horror film Son starring Andi Matichak and Emile Hirsch.The company has largely worked in production, distribution, and film finance in India where the company’s Golden Ratio Films has produced and released a dozen Indian films across formats and