Charles Prast

Charles Prast

Charles William Prast^[1] (born Brooklyn, NY) is an Anglo American media investor, investment banker and Director of Private Media Group Ltd. He is also former CEO of AMEX listed Interactive Brand Development, Inc.^[2] and NASDAQ listed Interactive Television Networks, Inc.^[3]

Summary

Prast is an investor, advisor and public company operator who concentrates on interactive entertainment, intellectual properties and debt obligation advisory services. Many of his investments and clients are companies with financing or capital structure challenges. He is known for his unconventional approaches to such challenges. He attended Greens Farms Academy in Greens Farms, Connecticut and double majored in Economics and French at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.^[4] He is based in Cyprus and Barcelona, Spain.

Investment Banking

Shortly after graduation from college, Prast began his financial career with Dean Witter Reynolds in Paris France where, at 21, he was appointed as Operations Manager of their Paris branch. In 1989, Prast moved to Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Paris office as an Associate Director. Following Drexel Burnham’s closure in 1990, Prast and several colleagues co-founded a hybrid asset management and institutional equity sales operation for Legg Mason and Banamex in Paris.

In 1993 Prast moved to London to join former colleagues from Drexel Burnham Lambert who had created NatWest Markets USA, the US broker dealer and investment banking arm of National Westminster Bank. At NatWest, Prast focused on capital markets and the marketing, pricing, structure and placement of US equity and corporate debt with European institutional investors. At NatWest Prast was known for his unorthodox approach to client management, once renting the entire Orient Express and redirecting the train through the English countryside with the CEO’s of most of the major US rail companies and the largest equity investors in Europe on board.

In 1997 Prast left NatWest to join Furman Selz’s London office as a Director and equity holder. Shortly after his joining, Furman Selz agreed to be acquired by Dutch banking giant ING Group for $600 million^[5] and was integrated into ING Barings, ING Group’s investment banking arm.

As a senior member of the ING media investment group, he was seen as a results-oriented maverick. On one occasion, a Prast-led European IPO for a subsidiary of a major US games company failed to come to market as planned. With costs spiraling and the client in disarray, Prast was instructed to do nothing more by the head of investment banking, who then left for a week's holiday. Disobeying orders, Prast immediately flew the client's US CEO to Europe where a large Swiss institutional investor agreed to buy a significant stake in the parent company that day. By the time the department chief returned, the deal expenses were met and a substantial private placement commission had been secured.

At the end of his buy-out related contact, Prast left ING Barings to join Commerzbank AG in London^[6] where he helped build the media banking group and played a key role in raising over $1bn in equity and equity-linked financing for US and European interactive entertainment companies including Ubisoft SA.^[7] Building on Commerzbank’s successful IPO of $300m European erotic retailer Beate Uhse AG, Prast also began to provide investment banking services to adult entertainment companies, believing that the Internet would become a disruptive technology for adult content providers and create challenges that would require consolidation and capital.^[8]

Corporate Roles

In early 2002, Prast left Commerzbank to join Barcelona based Private Media Group, Inc. as President and CEO. Adult media powerhouse Private was the first adult entertainment company to be quoted on the NASDAQ and has an over 40 year track record of production and distribution across all innovative platforms. At Private, Prast immediately restructured $4m in short-term debt^[9] and raised over $2m in equity-linked financing,^[10] thus preventing the company from defaulting on its obligations. In 2003, Arena magazine listed him fifth of the "50 Most Powerful People in Porn".^[11] At Private, Prast bid for the Napster brand which was in Chapter 7. According to Prast at the time "The brand and the logo are fabulous. The cat stays. The earphones may go, we may need to add horns to him."^[12]

In late 2003, General Media, Inc. the parent company of Penthouse filed for protection under Chapter 11.^[13] Unable to convince Private’s Chairman and Board of the value inherent in Penthouse’s brand and cash flow, and cognizant that his restructuring work at Private was complete,^[14] Prast resigned^[15] to pursue the Penthouse acquisition independently with financing from Beate Uhse.^[16] While Prast was ultimately unsuccessful in the bid, the substantial amount of Penthouse debt that he acquired in 2003 for his client at a sharply discounted price was fully redeemed at 100 cents on the dollar by the successful bidder.

From 2004 until 2005 Prast worked to maximize the value of the portion of Penthouse acquired by Interactive Brand Development, Inc. At Interactive Brand Development, Prast structured an investment in XTV, Inc.^[17] an IPTV set-top box provider focused solely on adult media for which Prast helped obtain a NASDAQ listing and ultimately joined as CEO, renaming the business Interactive Television Networks and broadening its focus to include mainstream and niche media.^[18]

Under Prast and his partners’ tenure LA-based Interactive Television Networks’ content relationships grew to include Universal Studios,^[19] Major League Baseball,^[20] Liberty Starz^[21] and Setanta Sports^[22] among others. Most of these deals were the first ever signed for Internet delivered content by these providers. Interactive Television Networks won Best of Show for Innovative Technology at Digital Life in 2005.^[23] While Interactive Television Networks ultimately failed to obtain critical mass, the technology and innovative approach to IP delivered content and licensing arrangements developed at Interactive Television Networks remain standard across many IPTV platforms.^[24]

From 2008 until early 2012, Prast focused on interactive entertainment, intellectual properties and debt obligation advisory services. He served as an SVP of New Frontier Media, Inc., the largest US adult broadcaster and operator of The Erotic Network, as well as adviser to the Board of Beate Uhse and numerous public and private company Boards, creditors and shareholders on a confidential basis.

After a long and widely reported shareholder and creditor rights battle,^[25] Prast was elected to the Board of Directors of Private in January 2012.^[26]

References

External links