Fleming firm invests in Skyfall technology Fleming Family & Partners Private Equity (FF&P PE), a division of the Fleming family private office, invested £4.2m in Sohonet, a company that provides high speed and high capacity broadband information networks to the film production industry. Ian Fleming, who created the James Bond character, was part of the merchant banking dynasty of the same name. Indeed, FF&P was formed in 2000 to manage the Fleming family's wealth following the sale of merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co to Chase Manhattan Bank (now part of JP Morgan). Sohonet, meanwhile, was founded in 1995 by a group of post-production companies with a small research grant. The company grew quickly and in 2000 Sohonet was sold to telecoms group Neos Networks. However, the business was eventually bought out of Neos by its management team, led by Dave Scammell, with the backing of investors from the film and television production industries. The deal with FF&P PE will make the family office the largest single minority shareholder in Sohonet and the transaction is expected to be announced early next week. As well as working for Eon, the production company that made Skyfall, Sohonet has also worked on the Harry Potter films. Sohonet is hoping to use the funds provided by FF&P PE to expand internationally. The company already has offices in Sydney and Los Angeles but wants to establish bureaux in Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.