Post by Simon Peterson

🇪🇸 Spain's SETT and South Africa's Known Associates Group announced a €26 million joint venture on 2 July, establishing a production company in Madrid and post-production studios in Bilbao and the Canary Islands. SETT is the state investment vehicle attached to Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation. It takes minority equity stakes rather than issuing grants, which lets it pull in private international capital under EU Next Generation rules. KAG's production arm, Moonlighting Films, has delivered services on titles including "Mufasa: The Lion King," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and Netflix's "Resident Evil" series. Its post-production house, The Refinery, is one of South Africa's leading VFX operators. Both are now establishing Spanish subsidiaries. SETT is contributing €8.8 million to Moonlighting Studios Spain, part of an €18 million total injection. The Madrid entity targets ten feature films and documentaries and is structured to develop original IP rather than purely service international productions. The second operation puts €3.9 million of SETT money into a 49% stake in The Refinery Spain, part of an €8 million total. The Canary Islands site sits inside the ZEC special economic zone, where corporate tax runs at 4% against 25% on the mainland. Private co-financing across both ventures comes from Sinobhukosi, a South African holding company led by Luleka Masinda. KAG arrived with its own private investor already committed, satisfying SETT's public-private requirement without sourcing European capital. There is a hard deadline behind the pace. The Hub Plan's second phase, worth €1.712 billion, must be fully committed before August 2026 or the funds return to the EU. That clock has compressed normal due diligence and made any credible operator with co-financing pre-arranged an attractive candidate. "We will continue this investment effort because it is very profitable for the country. The audiovisual industry is cultural. It is not only about the economic value and employment it generates." — Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation, Spain. SETT has now backed entities from Mexico, the UK, and South Africa under the same plan. The Spain Audiovisual Hub is operating less as a domestic industry fund and more as a government-backed landing pad for foreign audiovisual infrastructure, with the Canary Islands tax structure as the structural pull drawing post-production out of London, Dublin, and Cape Town. #SpainAudiovisual #SETT #KnownAssociatesGroup