Isle of Man in line for 20% Pinewood stake The Isle of Man may emerge with a 20 per cent stake in Pinewood Shepperton after Europe's biggest film studio by stage space agreed to advise the government's media fund on encouraging productions to shoot on the island. Pinewood, home to the James Bond films, said on Wednesday it had agreed to advise the Isle of Man's £25m media development fund on film investment opportunities over the next five years. It also highlighted a resolution put forward by the island's Treasury minister that the Treasury be "authorised but not required" to spend up to £24m buying a 19.9 per cent stake in Pinewood. Pinewood could prove the subject of a takeover tussle, following a recommended 200p a share offer by Peel Holdings in April and interest since from an unidentified European fund. The company's board is seeking approval for the Peel bid from three-quarters of investors. Shareholders representing 63 per cent of the register have backed it but some minority owners have expressed unhappiness with the price, which values Pinewood at £96.1m. If the Isle of Man were to pay the full £24m for a 19.9 per cent stake, that purchase would value the whole company at £120.6m, or 250p a share. Neither the company nor the Isle of Man said whether the island's media fund was the potential rival bidder that emerged last month. Pinewood is meanwhile seeking ways to expand in order to better compete with US and continental rivals, and last month unveiled plans to double the capacity of its studios on land adjacent to its current site. The government had rejected an earlier proposal to build a £200m set in Buckinghamshire. But Ivan Dunleavy, chief executive, argued the company was losing out on productions because of the lack of space. The group reported a £3m post-tax loss last year due to a charge related to the failed Buckinghamshire plans. In the Isle of Man agreement, Pinewood will take over the fund advisory work from a company called CinemaNX, which was founded in 2007 by Marc Samuelson, the producer of films including Wilde and Arlington Road. Since CinemaNX's formation, the Isle of Man has helped fund Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles and The Disappearance of Alice Creed, starring Gemma Arterton. Both productions were filmed in studios located on the northern tip of the island and released in 2009.