UTA, which last year acquired UK agency Curtis Brown, is opening a new office in London as it eyes further international growth.
The 28,000-square-foot space, across two floors at 1 Newman Street, is situated between Fitzrovia and Soho. Designed by architectural firms Gensler and Modus Workspace, the office will largely be populated by UTA’s music reps, but also include agents from comedy, production arts, podcasting, endorsements, voiceovers, marketing and UTA-owned management consulting firm MediaLink. The initial head-count will be around 100.
The location is a few blocks from the Cunard House offices of Curtis Brown, which moved into that site earlier this year. UTA’s new London office will continue to be co-led by music agents Neil Warnock and Obi Asika.
“London is one of the world’s great cultural and commercial centers, and this expansion reflects UTA’s growing investment in bringing UK and European clients more opportunities to make an impact around the world,” said Jeremy Zimmer, CEO and co-founder of UTA. “We’re excited to move into our new London home, creating a vibrant hub for our expanding team and range of capabilities across entertainment, sports and business.”
CAA, WME and UTA have resisted — or only dabbled — in positioning film and TV agents in London given the strong presence of local reps, but UTA President David Kramer, who last year played a key role in the Curtis Brown acquisition and worked with Zimmer to secure investment from Stockholm-based private equity firm EQT Holdings, told Deadline that this was on the horizon.
“We watched some of our competitors send film and TV agents to London and we learnt from that. It wasn’t always received well. When we bought CBG we didn’t want it to feel like the ‘Americans were coming in over the wall’. We’ve taken the approach of having agents go to London and embed themselves and spend some time there. There is so much international talent and so many international buyers in Europe now. Film, TV and production agents will be part of our full suite of staff in London over time.”
U.S. agencies have been kicking the tyres on potential UK agency acquisitions in recent years. Independent is among those often speculated about for a sale or significant new investment. UTA made the first big splash by acquiring Curtis Brown.
Kramer said the cultural and practical mesh with the respected UK firm had been “great”. “We’ve stuck to the plan. Curtis Brown has great business leaders, we didn’t want to mess anything up there, but we’re partnering with them to be additive where possible. The co-rep business, in terms of which clients we share with companies other than Curtis Brown, hasn’t been disrupted, and on the Curtis Brown side, there hasn’t been disruption for them. It has been nice to see how both communities have responded to it. As time goes on, I believe the concept of an American agency owning a UK agency will be normalised.”
The agency vet, whose clients include Judd Appatow and Jay Roach, predicted further international M&A for the agency: “Internationally, you’re going to see more M&A and growth for us. The UK was the most logical first step. There are a lot of other places we would like to tap into given the proliferation of global content. We’re thinking about western Europe but also Asia and other markets and we want to be aggressive in that expansion.”
UTA first established a presence in London with its 2015 acquisition of UK music company The Agency Group. UTA music clients Burna Boy, Christine and the Queens, Lizzo, Wizkid and Central Cee are all in action in the UK this summer.
The firm is headquartered in LA and also has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville and New York.
Kramer said of the ongoing industrial action affecting the business: “We’re fully in support of what the WGA is trying to achieve. We’re starting to see the slowdown and it’s having an impact but the three main agencies are now highly diversified in their businesses so that softens the film and TV impact. We’re hopeful the business will get back to its previous volume soon after this is resolved.”
Despite having to make a handful of cuts to staff earlier this year, Kramer said he didn’t think the economic impact of strike action would lead to additional staffing changes at UTA in the near future: “We’re monitoring the situation but I don’t see any plans for personnel changes — that’s not part of the current conversation. If the strike continues for a long time we may have to think about curbing expenses but that’s not a concern now. We were happy to see the DGA come to a provisional agreement and we hope agreements with SAG and WGA will follow soon.”