Cityneon appoints Welby Altidor, former Cirque du Soleil's Executive Creative Director of Creations, as Group Chief Creative Officer

SINGAPORE, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mainboard-listed Cityneon Holdings Limited (SGX:5HJ) ("Cityneon", the "Company", or collectively with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), is pleased to announce the appointment of Welby Altidor, former Executive Creative Director of Creations at Cirque du Soleil.

Altidor is poised to work his inventive prowess for Cityneon by joining the Singapore-listed company as its Group Chief Creative Officer.

Cityneon is an agency that transforms customer and brand experiences, made up of five business divisions – Interior Architecture, Experiential Environments, Events, Exhibitions and Intellectual Property Rights ("IPR"). Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Victory Hill Exhibitions, is best known for creating the highly-acclaimed Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.

Altidor's appointment comes right after Lucrum 1 Investments Ltd, a consortium led by Mr Ron Tan, Executive Director and Group CEO of Cityneon, procured the acquisition of 52.51% shares held by Cityneon's previous majority shareholder for S$115,612,731 (approximately US$84 million) in July 2017.  Lucrum 1 Investments Ltd now owns approximately 68.86% of Cityneon and is its largest shareholder.

Amongst the many candidates, Cityneon chose to work with Altidor based on his creative acumen and business intuitions honed during his 16 years with Cirque du Soleil.

Welby began his career as a talent scout for Cirque du Soleil, becoming the youngest Casting Director in the company's history, working on over 15 productions.  As Executive Creative Director, Altidor oversaw and influenced several shows including LUZIA and Michael Jackson ONE, an award-winning hit that is in its fourth year of residence at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas (MGM). Altidor has collaborated with a roster of luminaries, including Jamie King, Billy Crystal, Alicia Keys, Russell Simmons and The Michael Jackson Estate. As one of the founders of C:LAB, the creative laboratory of The Cirque du Soleil Group, Altidor left his creative mark on the innovative entertainment company.

Due to his success with Cirque du Soleil, Altidor is also a sought-after speaker, with clients including Fortune 100 companies like Nike, Sephora and SAP. His first book, "Creative Courage: Leveraging Imagination, Collaboration and Innovation to Create Success Beyond Your Wildest Dreams" will be published internationally by Wiley in Fall 2017.

Cityneon, now with Altidor helming the Creative Team, aims to use his skills to spearhead and transform the Group's previous creative projects, as well as design and execute new projects and business ventures. As an expert creator of live experiences, Altidor's appointment is in line with Cityneon's vision of creating experiences that transcend tradition to wow and move audiences beyond their expectations.

"I am thrilled to have Welby joined the Cityneon family.  I've mentioned in public many times about my enthusiastic admiration of Cirque du Soleil and how they are the inspiration behind where we are today.  To have Welby, a 16-year creative veteran of the organization I admire, now helming our creative team, makes me confident that Cityneon will stand to benefit from his vast know-how with creating extraordinary live experiences, recruiting outstanding talents to execute stunning artistic creations, to help us excel and exceed our current product offerings," says Mr Ron Tan, Executive Director and Group CEO of Cityneon.

Altidor is excited to join the Cityneon team. "Cityneon is ready to launch the next wave of memorable, engaging and ground-breaking entertainment experiences for audiences all over the world. It's an honour to join Ron and the team to create with impact!" says Altidor.

Altidor will be based in Las Vegas, where Cityneon will establish another presence in addition to the existing creative office in Los Angeles.

According to Ron Tan, Altidor's appointment will continue to develop Cityneon's story-telling culture -- "working with international movie studios and global partners to deliver unique experiences to audiences around the world."

Directors' Responsibility Statement

The directors of the Company (including those who have delegated detailed supervision of this press release) jointly and severally accept full responsibility for the accuracy of the information given in this press release and confirm after making all reasonable enquiries that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, the facts stated and opinions expressed in this announcement are fair and accurate and have been arrived at after due and careful consideration, and the directors of the Company are not aware of any facts the omission of which would make any statement in this press release misleading.

Where information in this press release has been extracted or reproduced from published or otherwise publicly available sources or obtained from a named source, the sole responsibility of the directors of the Company has been to ensure through reasonable enquiries that such information has been accurately and correctly extracted from those sources and/or reproduced in this announcement in its proper form and context.

About Cityneon Holdings Limited

As a leading service agency, Cityneon specialises in crafting quality customer and brand experiences in the fields of Intellectual Property Rights, Interior Architecture, Events, Exhibitions and Theme Parks, working with governments, businesses, brands and organisations worldwide.

Cityneon is committed to high excellence, good quality, precision and creativity, and is uniquely proficient in the conceptualisation and creation of immersive attractions, theme parks and exhibitions featuring state-of-the-art technologies and immersive storytelling. Some of its past creations include the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N exhibition and the award-winning Sultanate of Oman National Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, completed by Cityneon's Middle Eastern office.

With its global reach and international partnerships, Cityneon has the capability to serve its clients anywhere in the world. Cityneon (SGX:5HJ) has been listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2005, and is included in the Morgan Stanley Capital International, Inc (NYSE: MSCI) and MSCI Global Micro Cap Indexes -- Singapore Index. For more information, please visit www.cityneon.net.

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SOURCE Cityneon Holdings Limited