Cityneon Secures Rights To Transformers Exhibitions And Events

PETALING JAYA: Star Media Group Bhd’s Cityneon Holdings Ltd has secured the rights to use the Transformers brand, which is a major international household name in the entertainment world.

The Singapore-listed Cityneon said on Wednesday its unit Dayspring Entertainment Pte Ltd had sealed an agreement with Hasbro, Inc. and Hasbro International, Inc. relating to the Transformer brand.

Under the agreement, Dayspring has the exclusive rights to use the Transformers brand for the development, staging, production, promotion, and advertisement of the exhibits.

Cityneon said the exhibitions will be at approved venues in the world (excluding the city of Indianapolis, Indiana and Japan). The first exhibition is expected to be opened in 2016.

“Dayspring is also able to develop and manufacture merchandises based on the exhibits, and the right to advertise and sell such merchandises at the identified venues. The exclusive right is for period until June 30, 2023,” it said.

This follows Cityneon’s success in securing the rights to provide exhibition services of characters from comic book giant Marvel earlier this year.

On Sept 30, Cityneon, which is a leading provider of solutions for interior architecture, experiential environment, events and exhibitions, completed a S$21mil (RM59mil) deal with Philadelphia Investments Ltd to acquire the entire share capital of Victory Hill.

Victory Hill holds the rights to operate, market and promote the Marvel exhibits for display in museums and science centres or other similar venues.

Iconic Marvel characters include the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, which were popularised by the movie The Avengers.

Separately, Victory Hill Exhibitions chief executive officer and president Ron Tan said the group is honoured to be able to partner with Hasbro for the global rights to launch the Transformers experience in different parts of the world.

“We have witnessed how both Transformers movies 3 and 4 grossed more than us$1bil (RM4.4bil) in its tickets sales globally, as well as the reception towards the Transformers franchise by all age groups and in all corners of the world.”

On the reason for the acquisition of Victory Hill, Cityneon had said earlier this year that it had “always been hunting for interesting and complementary plays to add to its business mix”.

“Other than increasing our global footprint and diversifying our revenue streams, the board is convinced that the acquisition of Victory Hill will bring us to a new level of providing exhibition services and add significant value to our global offering,” said non-executive chairman Lew Weng Ho in a statement in April.