MUMBAI: Tax credit-based financier Film Production Capital (FPC), owned by Will French, has opened its office in Australia to capitalise on growing government tax incentives behind the boom in Australian film and television production.

The company has begun the search to hire a local head of operations and is currently finalising plans for a syndicate of US and Australian banks to provide a credit facility that FPC will then use to lend against two schemes.

The schemes are the Producer Offset programme, a refundable offset of up to 40 per cent of the Australian production spend for films with significant Australian content and the Location Offset programme, a refundable offset of up to 15 per cent of the Australian production spend for any producer shooting in Australia, regardless of the film‘s Australian content.

FPC launched in Louisiana in 2003 and till date sources close to the company said it had financed or acquired tax credits for nearly 70 productions including the upcoming The Expendables, Stone and Father Of Invention as well as previous releases such as Premonition and Ray.

FPC also has branches in Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts and Michigan and currently has 12 films in various stages of production.