Bosses of firm given £4m loan pay themselves £1.8m

THREE directors of an international film production company which has received a £4m loan from the Welsh Government paid themselves a total of more than £1.8m in 18 months.

Bad Wolf was set up in July 2015 by former BBC executives Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner, who were involved with successful programmes including Doctor Who, Torchwood and Da Vinci’s Demons, all of which were filmed in Wales.

The firm is currently developing what will be the biggest studio in Wales at Cardiff. It has already secured three major productions for Wales in His Dark Materials, an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s trilogy of fantasy novels, A Discovery of Witches, based on Deborah Harkness’ historical fantasy novel, and an adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s trilogy The Warlord Chronicles.

However, in its first set of accounts filed at Companies House – covering the period July 2015 to December 2016 – the firm reveals Ms Tranter was paid £855,417, Ms Gardner received £519,301, and the third director Miles Ketley, £441,539.

Over the same period, the organisation reported a loss before tax of £2.8m.

The accounts also reveal that Ms Tranter received a loan of £270,645 from the company at an interest rate of 0.5%, of which £186,861 remained outstanding at the end of 2016.

A spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives said: “We support investment in our creative industries, which is a busy and expanding sector here in Wales. While we hope that Bad Wolf and its pipeline projects will achieve great success, there are aspects of its finances which are concerning.

“It is curious as to why the Welsh Government has awarded a loan of £4m guaranteed against the value of Bad Wolf Ltd’s assets, which the annual report shows are worth a mere fraction relative to the loan’s value.

“That the three directors collectively paid themselves an income equivalent to nearly half of the loan’s value is also a cause for concern – especially given that their projects are still in the inchoate stages and are yet to make a return.

“As custodians of public money, the Welsh Government has a responsibility to ensure that the projects they invest in reflect good value for money for the taxpayer. We will be seeking assurances from ministers that all due diligence was adhered to in this investment.”

A spokesman for Bad Wolf said: “The Welsh Government loaned £4m to Bad Wolf to develop international TV production in Wales – to be repaid with interest.

“Since then Bad Wolf has brought in over double that amount in investment from outside companies with further investment imminent.

“The company is about to unveil a new £25m production to be shot in Cardiff, meaning that the loan from the Welsh Government has already generated significant new business for Wales.”

The spokesman did not wish to comment specifically on the level of pay awarded to the three directors.

The Welsh Government did not wish to comment on “a commercial decision by a private company”.