Natixis Coficine, the 67-year-old firm that financed 11 films playing in Cannes, including Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society,” is expanding further into international projects.
Chaired by French industry vet Didier Duverger, Natixis Coficine invests approximately 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion) in films and TV drama and has started in recent years diversifying its client base across Europe as well as in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the U.S. via reps based in the U.K., Spain, Germany and Scandinavia. Today, 25% of Natixis Coficine’s clients come from outside of France, where the outfit invests about 200 million Euros ($226 million). Natixis Coficine is now aiming to invest more in English-language content and in Germany, not only in films but also in TV shows.
As more and more European producers embark into English-language projects with U.S. talent, Duverger, who works closely with the company’s managing director Christophe Vidal, said Natixis Coficine had a competitive advantage over U.S. lenders, notably due to its knowledge of Europe’s public funding schemes.
Natixis Coficine is the investment arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France, which helped finance Scandi helmer Susanne Bier’s BBC show “The Night Manager,” the “Taken” TV spinoff with Clive Standen, and “Versailles,” which was penned by David Wolstencroft (“The Escape Artist”) and Simon Mirren (“Criminal Minds”) and shot in France with British actors. In terms of English-language films, Natixis Coficine helped financed “Jackie” with Natalie Portman, Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon” and Oliver Stone’s “Snowden.”
