CJ Group subsidiary CJ Systems buys up majority share in AZWorks, other subsidiaries merge into CJ E&M

South Korean IT company CJ Systems has become a majority shareholder in Busan-based post-production house AZWorks, Inc. A subsidiary of the conglomerate CJ Corp, CJ Systems has picked up 74.1% of AZWorks’ shares, with the Busan Film Commission owning 24.9%.

Opened in 2009 with a $27.7m (KW31.2bn) investment from Busan City, AZWorks carries out CGI, editing, recording and other post-production work for TV, film and new media. The company recently did post-production work on films such as Park Chan-wook’s Thirst [pictured], Bong Joon-ho’s Mother and Choi Dong-hoon’s Woo Chi as well as overseas films such as Zhang Ziyi-starring Chinese film Sophie’s Revenge.

Prior to CJ Systems’s $2.6m (KW2.95bn) acquisitions of shares, the post-production house was $1.5m (KW1.7bn) in debt due to a downturn in the local film production sector and what was seen as inexperienced management. CJ is understood to be planning further investment until operations are normalized.

In related news, CJ Systems affiliate CJ Entertainment was merged with other broadcasting, film, music, performance and game affiliates into CJ E&M (Entertainment & Media) as of the first of this month. The new entity aims to dominate the local media market with ‘one source multi-use’ contents as well as to become the top contents enterprise in Asia.

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