In Brief: Citicorp Unit Does $1B Funding for Fox

Citicorp Securities Inc. has arranged the largest film financing to date, a $1 billion package for Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

The deal was primarily structured as a commercial paper securitization and included a privately placed equity portion.

Citicorp said that this is the first time a motion picture company has tapped the commercial paper market, as well as structured a global financing secured by foreign and domestic future receivables.

Ellen Alemany, Citicorp's global industry head for media and communications, said she recognized that film financing is inherently risky but said that, on a portfolio basis, "we are able to create instruments with risk-return parameters that both perform at levels attractive to investors and are cost-effective to Fox."