Entertainment industry mogul and multinational business entrepreneur Andrea Iervolino has been tasked with evaluating entertainment investment opportunities in the in the West Indies, with a focus on enriching Antigua and Barbuda with opportunities involving film and TV productions, strategic partnerships, and cooperations bridging the countries with Europe and North America where Iervolino runs several successful businesses.

In this undertaking, Iervolino will work closely with Dario Item, Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the Kingdom of Spain, the Principality of Monaco, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the UNWTO.

Said Iervolino, “Its an honor to be tasked with building valuable, long-lasting culture and business bridges between the West Indies, Europe and North America. I see tremendous opportunity and envision entertainment and tech industries being key drivers in cross-border collaborations that can galvanize and provide mutual returns very quickly.

The West Indies, and in particular Antigua and Barbuda, have long been overlooked despite being well positioned for growth. We will bring opportunities swiftly and the global markets will take notice.”

Dario Item commented, “Nobody is better equipped than Andrea to open the doors of Antigua and Barbuda to North American and European businesses in these key growth sectors.

Running successful companies throughout Europe and North America and recognized as a pioneering business leader, Andrea’s approach to fostering new relationships and building foundations is remarkable. This is precisely what we need and why Andrea is the ideal man for this job.”

Iervolino founded and runs the publicly held studio Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment (“ILBE”) (Euronext Growth Milan – IE and Euronext Growth Paris – ALIE); publicly traded Tatatu S.p.A. the first social media and entertainment app to reward users for the value they help generate by spending time on the platform (Euronext Growth Paris ticker code: ALTTU) which has a $6 billion valuation; and the cutting edge SPACE 11 – a company specifically dedicated to servicing film and TV projects in outer space.

Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment S.p.A. (ILBE) is a global production company active in the production of film and television content as well as animated web series. The Company also operates through the subsidiaries Arte Video, and Red Carpet, IES Serbia, Wepost (formerly Iexchange) and the associated company WTI.

ILBE was listed on Euronext Growth Milan in August 2019, and from January 2022 also on Euronext Growth Paris. In 2020 ILBE recorded revenues of € 121 million, EBIT of € 23 million and a net result of € 19 million.

ILBE is currently working on the highly anticipated movie “Ferrari” written, directed and produced by four-time Oscar® nominee Michael Mann and starring Academy Award® nominee Adam Driver, Academy Award® winner Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey and Jack O’Connell.

The company most recently closed a U.S. theatrical distribution deal with Samuel Goldwyn Films for its star-studded female powered “Tell it Like a Woman” featuring an esteemed group of female filmmakers and actors that includes Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Hudson, Pauletta Washington ,Cara Delevingne, Catherine Hardwicke, Margherita Buy, Marcia Gay Harden, Eva Longoria, Leonor Varela, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anne Watanabe and Mipo O. ILBE made this film in collaboration with Chiara Tilesi’s non-profit We Do it Together.

On the family entertainment front, the global success of their animated family/adventure film and series “Arctic Dogs” and “Puffins,” has led to three new spinoff series produced by ILBE.

The innovative short series are designed specifically to meet the needs of new generations increasingly accustomed to the very short duration of clips due to the exponential growth of new video reel formats of social networks such as Tik Tok and Instagram.

The series, which will be available from the end of the second quarter of 2023, will contain 60 second episodes and will feature likeable characters from the spin-off series of the animated film “Arctic Dogs” and “Puffins” series.

Iervolino founded social media platform TaTaTu in 2020 with the aim of becoming one of the world’s must-use social media and entertainment platform.

The Company’s vision is that sharing value among the various players that are active in the social media environment, namely (i) the platform, (ii) the content producers and (iii) the viewers, constitutes a new and fair approach to business, which the Company expects will be recognized and appreciated by users.

Such an innovative approach is the cornerstone of the Company’s vision of a “sharing economy”.

TaTaTu’s direct listing took place in October 2022 through the admission to trading of 814,265,232 shares.

The reference share price was €2.00, equals to the subscription price of a private placement conducted prior to the listing. Thus, the market capitalization of the Company was approximately €1.6bn on the day of the listing.