Financial services company Moneypenny, which has been anintegral part of Australia's film industry for 25 years, is expanding intoSouth Africa and New Zealand within the next few months.

Principal Jane Corden (pictured) relocates to Capetown for 12 monthsfrom late June - one of her first tasks will be to find a local partner - whilePhillip Gore will run the New Zealand operation.

Moneypenny is the umbrella business for 20 productionaccountants who handle as much as half of all the independent film andtelevision projects that shoot in Australia.

The intention is to set up a similar operation to serve theAfrican continent and Corden hopes to recruit many of the freelancers workingthere now, believing that she can offer support and training to them at thesame time as servicing productions for producers.

Increasingly, Moneypenny has been taking a key role instructuring deals for Australian producers and facilitating the relatively newtax benefits available for large budget 'runaway' productions.

Corden believes the new relationships that will flow fromthe company's expansion will help grow co-productions and wants to encouragethe Southern Hemisphere to co-operate together more.