French insurance company Axa buys Bry-sur-Marne Studios – Kommersant

The real estate division of the French insurance and investment company Axa is buying the French film studio Bry-sur-Marne Studios and intends to make it one of the leading film studios in Europe. Axa Investment Managers will pay €150 million for the film studio.

As noted Financial Times, this deal fits into a growing trend of buying TV and film companies by large real estate firms. Recently, real estate investing companies have begun to look for investment opportunities outside of conventional markets such as offices or shopping centers. Both are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, with many office workers telecommuting, and online commerce has skyrocketed, lowering the value of both office and retail space. At the same time, the cost of film studios and film sets, especially those located near major cities, has skyrocketed against the background of the growth in the popularity of streaming services such as Netflix. There are not many such film studios, so there is a struggle among potential buyers for them.

Bry-sur-Marne Studios, located in the village of Brie-sur-Marne, 8 km east of Paris, were filmed, among others, the 2006 film Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola, one of the parts of the Hunger Games, and also released in February of this year the film “Asterix and Obelix: China”. Akha plans to implement a “massive development program” on a 12-hectare site occupied by a film studio. This, according to Axa, will more than double the production capacity of the film studio, making it “one of the largest in continental Europe.”

Alena Miklashevskaya