High-profile film buyer Daniel Otto is to become head of acquisitions at Helkon-backed sales and finance outfit Peppermint.

Otto joins the outfit after four years of acquisitions in the film department of KirchMedia. Peppermint was established in March of last year, with a slate focused primarily on TV programming, but has ambitions to extend into features.

"There will definitely be a greater move towards films of theatrical quality - for world-wide territories as well as for German-speaking territories," said Otto.

He added that Peppermint's Asian sales slant - it has offices in Kuala Lumpur, as well as Germany and Switzerland - could mean that it now begins to handle Asian films for world sales. The company furthermore specialises in co-producing, co-financing and project-development through strategic alliances with international partners.