Cinram Group

About Cinram Group

Cinram Group, Inc. was the company through which the Phoenix private investment firm Najafi Companies held the Cinram disc and media supply-chain business, bought out of Cinram's Canadian insolvency proceedings.^[1] Formed in 2012 as Cinram Acquisition, Inc., it took over the North American assets on 31 August 2012 and the shares of the group's European companies on 5 February 2013, and traded on under the Cinram name in the manufacture, packaging and distribution of movies, music, games and books.^[1][2][3] It sold the North American optical disc business to Technicolor in November 2015 and the European Cinram group to 1847 Partners and the GEM Group on 27 January 2017.^[4][5] Najafi Companies places Cinram among the historical investments on its own list of holdings.^[6]

The company appears under its first name in the Ontario proceedings as the Purchaser under the asset purchase agreement of 22 June 2012 for Cinram's North American business and under the binding share purchase offer of the same date for the European companies.^[2] Cinram International Income Fund announced on 31 August 2012 that it had completed the sale of substantially all of its assets and businesses in the United States and Canada to the newly formed Najafi affiliate, which took over the manufacture of pre-recorded multimedia products and the related logistics, digital media and vendor-managed inventory services.^[1] The European transaction was a share sale: Cinram Group, Inc. bought all the issued and outstanding shares in Cooperatie Cinram Netherlands UA, and with them the co-operative's direct and indirect subsidiaries, from C International Inc. and 1362806 Ontario Limited; the final transfer of funds was completed on 4 February 2013 and the Monitor delivered its certificate the following day.^[2] The company announced that closing on 31 January 2013, describing itself as a newly formed, wholly owned affiliate of Najafi Companies of Phoenix that would carry on under the Cinram name, with Steve Brown as chief executive and Neil Ballantine leading the European business.^[3]

Under Najafi the company also bought JVC America Inc., a division of JVC Americas Corp. and a consolidated United States sales subsidiary of JVC Kenwood Corporation, closing on 17 June 2014; its manufacturing and fulfilment operations at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Kennesaw, Georgia went on as Cinram Operations, Inc.^[7] Technicolor announced on 2 November 2015 that it had agreed to purchase the relevant North American optical disc manufacturing and distribution assets from Cinram Group, Inc. in order to take on the packaged-media contracts of two large United States studio customers, and its 2016 consolidated financial statements date that acquisition to 12 November 2015, at US$44 million, with a further US$21 million of borrowings repaid by the buyer under the agreement.^[8][4] The European business followed: 1847 Partners LLC, in partnership with the GEM Group, announced on 27 January 2017 the completion of its acquisition of the European Cinram Group from Najafi Companies, with the organisation continuing under the Cinram name, Jim Brooks, the managing director of Cinram Europe, welcoming the new shareholders and Edward Tobin, a managing director of 1847, describing the purchase as taking the firm deeper into media services and supply chain.^[5] PR Newswire carried the identical release again on 30 January 2017, word for word and three days later, and MusikWoche reported on 7 February 2017 that the Cinram sites in Germany, England and France had passed to the new owners, dating the completed takeover to the 1847 release of 27 January.^[9][10]