FuseFX acquires RSP, positioning the business for global strategic growth

FuseFX, a full-service, award-winning visual effects company with studios in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, Montréal, Toronto, and Bogotá, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), a world-renowned, high-end visual effects studio headquartered in Adelaide, Australia. Rising Sun Pictures, founded in 1995 by Tony Clark, Gail Fuller, and Wayne Lewis, offers a full suite of visual effects services and has a long heritage of creating world-class visual effects for many of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster movies and streaming content. Over its 25-year history, RSP has established itself as one of the world's elite visual effects studios.

Rising Sun Pictures Co-Founder Tony Clark will continue to lead the studio and operate under the Rising Sun Pictures brand. Together, the combined companies have nearly 800 artists at eight locations across the globe. The partnership represents the combining of two great teams, both bringing world-class expertise from their respective fields.

"Tony, Gail, Wayne and the entire team at Rising Sun Pictures have created one of the most well-established and respected independent studios in the world," said David Altenau, Founder and CEO of FuseFX. "Their commitment to delivering the highest quality art and service to their clients has helped make them an icon in the visual effects industry. Their previous work and position in the industry make them a fantastic partner for FuseFX."

RSP Managing Director, Tony Clark, shared, "We're very excited to be partnering with FuseFX, which comes at an ideal time as we grow to meet the demand over the coming years.

Our vision for Rising Sun Pictures is to be a cornerstone component of the next generation global full-service visual effects company, and with the FuseFX partnership, we can achieve this vision to ensure that we stay at the forefront of visual effects production and remain a trusted creative partner to our clients." RSP Managing Director, Tony Clark.

Clark added, "I'd sincerely like to thank my fellow founders and shareholders for the last 25 years. We have all been crucial to the success of RSP, culminating at this pivotal moment in time. RSP will embark on an expansion plan over the next few years, and we’re grateful to be partnering with David Altenau and the team at FuseFX to help fully realize RSP's potential."

As RSP continues to execute on its plan, Tony will be joined by RSP’s well-established executive management team, including Chief Financial Officer, Gareth Eriksson, Head of Business Development, Jennie Zeiher, Executive Assistant, Maree Friday, Head of People & Culture, Scott Buley and Head of Production & Executive Producer, Meredith Meyer-Nichols. There will be no operational changes to the RSP business and the team will look to add talent after a recent expansion of the Adelaide headquarters that provides the studio with a capacity of 270 crew. Over the past year, the studio has contributed to projects including Disney's upcoming Jungle Cruise led by VFX Supervisor Malte Sarnes and as lead vendor on New Line Cinema's Mortal Kombat under the direction of VFX Supervisor Dennis Jones.

The South Australian state government welcomes the news of the partnership between FuseFX and RSP. Minister for Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni said, "South Australia is enjoying a golden age in the production of film, television and streaming services, and the decision by FuseFX to invest in Adelaide vindicates the Marshall Government’s ambitious strategy." Clark offered, "The state government has been incredibly supportive of RSP and the creative industries in South Australia. The incentives on offer, in combination with federal incentives, mean that South Australia is a prime destination for visual effects production and will continue to be for years to come."

Altenau concluded, "We're thrilled to be joining forces with Rising Sun Pictures to help fuel their ambitious expansion plans and to offer an even broader range of skill sets, geographic locations and storytelling solutions to our clients at the level of quality and service they demand."

FocalPoint Partners served as financial advisor to FuseFX and Will Berryman advised RSP.

About FuseFX:
FuseFX was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles by David Altenau and co-founders Tim Jacobsen and Jason Fotter. Establishing itself as an award-winning studio, FuseFX provides full-service visual effects for episodic television, feature films, commercials, virtual and VR productions. The company has seven studio locations: its flagship studio in Los Angeles, as well as New York, Atlanta, and Vancouver. The company's studios in Montréal, Toronto, and Bogotá are serviced by Folks VFX, which joined the FuseFX family of brands in 2020. FuseFX is a portfolio company of EagleTree Capital.

https://fusefx.com/

About Rising Sun Pictures:
Rising Sun Pictures was founded in 1995 by Tony Clark, Gail Fuller, and Wayne Lewis and is a full-service visual effects studio based in Adelaide, Australia. With a strong track record of delivering tier 1 visual effects across over 150 film and episodic productions since inception, Rising Sun Pictures is recognized industry-wide for creating some of the highest quality visual effects and most memorable on-screen moments. Rising Sun Pictures has provided work on such notable projects as Mortal Kombat, Black Widow, Ford v Ferrari, Spider-Man: Far from Home, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Captain Marvel, The Predator, The Boys season 2, Game of Thrones, and Thor: Ragnarok.

About EagleTree Capital:
EagleTree Capital is a leading New York-based middle-market private equity firm that has invested approximately $2.7 billion of equity capital since inception. The Firm has completed over 35 private equity investments and over 70 add-on transactions over the past 20+ years. EagleTree primarily invests in North America in the following sectors: media and business services, consumer, and water and specialty industrial. For more information, please visit www.eagletree.com.