On August 2, 2007, Grupo MVS, S.A. de C.V. (MVS), a media, contents and telecommunications services company based in Mexico City, formed a joint venture with a private equity fund affiliated with buyout firm InterMedia Advisors LLC (InterMedia) in order to exploit MVS’ pay television channel “Cine Latino”.  Under the terms of the transaction documents, MVS and InterMedia will own, each, 50% of the business.

Cine Latino is a premium movie channel that is broadcast by pay television systems in the Americas and Australia, the programming of which consists of feature films originally in the Spanish language.

The transaction was partially financed by General Electric Capital Corporation (GE Capital).

MVS and its affiliates were advised by Forastieri Abogados, S.C., through partner Francisco Forastieri, senior associate Eduardo Díaz de Cossío, and associate Gloria Martínez.  Strasburger & Price, LLP advised MVS with respect to U.S. law matters through partner David Cibrian (San Antonio office) and associate John Dorsey (Austin office).

InterMedia received legal advice from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP through partner Ruth Fisher (Century City office), associates Stephen Tsoneff and Shira Saiger (Century City office), and partner Janet Vance and international associate Bernardo Coindreau (New York office).  Creel, García-Cuéllar y Müggenburg, S.C. acted as special Mexican counsel to InterMedia, through partner Carlos Müggenburg.

GE Capital was represented by its in-house counsels Howard Salk, Gregory Watts and Eric Oberfield. Latham & Watkins LLP (Chicago office) provided outside legal advice to GE Capital through partner David G. Crumbaugh, of counsel Mishel R. Keta, and associate Daniel J. Long.  A separate team of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP led by associates Anne Kobayashi (New York office) advised Cine Latino and its equityholders in connection with the financing and security agreements.