Vancouver: Mark Benard, president and digital effects supervisor of Vancouver post house Lost Boys Studios, has purchased back shares of his company held by Virgin Digital Studios.

The acquisition follows Virgin’s announcement in May to sell the majority of its post-production assets to Four Media Company in Los Angeles, a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation.

Benard is now the majority shareholder in Lost Boys Studios, with a smaller percentage held by company director and new cfo Denis Benard.

Virgin, which wants to focus on its media, publishing and Internet holdings in Europe, had owned a stake in Lost Boys since 1997.

Virgin also sold its shares in 525 Studios in Santa Monica, Rushes Post Production and West 1 Television in London, and Virgin Television de Mexico in Mexico City.

Lost Boys Studios says it continues a working relationship with the Mexico studio because a significant percentage of its business comes from creating digital effects for commercials in the Latin American market.

Current commercial projects include Pepsi product Power Punch, Seagram’s and AOL Internet. Lost Boys is also contributing to new series Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.

Lost Boys has a roster of 17 staff. Yves Laniel, formerly of Buzz Image, has been named managing director. *

– www.lostboys-studios.com

– www.virgin.com site