Acquisition

Ten Alps Communications PLC
04 November 2002

Ten Alps acquires Brook Lapping, one of UK's top factual TV production companies



Ten Alps Communications PLC ('Ten Alps') today announces the acquisition of 100%
of the issued equity of Brook Lapping Holdings Limited ('BLH', 'the group'),
parent company of Brook Lapping Productions Limited ('Brook Lapping Productions
') and Brian Lapping Associates Limited ('Brian Lapping Associates').



Brook Lapping Productions is one of Britain's best-known independent factual
television production companies, with a 20-year history of producing programmes
for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, The Discovery Channel and broadcasters in America
and over 40 other countries around the world.



The group has net assets of £2.02m, including £2.45m in cash (as at October 31
2002).  For the year ended 31 December 2001, Brook Lapping reported profits
before taxation of £841,937 on turnover of £4.6m.



On completion, Ten Alps is paying consideration of up to £2.35m in cash.
Additional consideration may also be payable under an earnout arrangement.



The earnout will pay a maximum consideration of £2.151m in cash over the next
2.5 years, dependent on the group achieving agreed gross profit targets of up to
£1.85m in each of three earnout periods.  The valuation is based on a P/E
multiple of approximately four. The earn-out is designed to be self-financing in
cash flow terms.  In addition, share options in respect of up to 320,000
ordinary shares of Ten Alps have been granted to the Brook Lapping management.



'This acquisition is a big step forward for us financially, and in factual
broadcasting,' said Alex Connock, Ten Alps Chief Executive.  'We're buying a
brand that is amongst the strongest in its field, and we will now have the
privilege of very significantly adding to our talent base to fuel future
developments.'



Brian Lapping, co-founder of the group, commented:  'Ten Alps is exactly the
right strategic fit for us. We have a range of ambitious projects in
development, and Ten Alps has also produced political programmes for the BBC.
We are looking forward to the expansion opportunities this brings.'



The earn-out deal in this acquisition is based on gross profit targets.



'This will enable us to merge our production companies, without having to then
attempt to separate operating costs, which can be a time-consuming and divisive
exercise,' said Ten Alps Finance Director Nitil Patel.   'It's all about
building as one company from day one.'



'The Brook Lapping group has consistently demonstrated its ability to make
substantial profits over an extended period of years, and that is the kind of
company we have sought to bring into our group.'







                 TV documentary company with global reputation



The award-winning group's TV programmes have included The Death of Yugoslavia, A
Week in Politics, Endgame in Ireland, The Second Russian Revolution, The
Kennedys, Watergate, The Death of Apartheid and the recent Avenging Terror.  The
group has a substantial programming library, and a range of programmes in
production and development for UK and international channels.



The current production slate includes The Fall of Milosevic (three 90-minute
films for BBC2 and foreign broadcasters) and Maggie, the First Lady (four
60-minute programmes for ITV and US channel PBS), both due for transmission in
early 2003.   The group has also developed with the BBC a format of I Met....
biographies, following the production of I met Adolf Eichmann, and it has
recently had its first invitation to make a series for Channel 5.



Following this transaction, the Brook Lapping brand will be retained.  Its
strong reputation in the world's TV documentary markets has generated co-funding
opportunities which often involve five or more leading broadcasters, including
PBS, France 2, France 5, Canal +, Arte, ZDF, NHK Japan, ARD, Seven Network and
ABC Australia.  These international coproductions have been handled since 1990
by Temple International, which will continue to represent the group.



Meanwhile, the production staff and office, including production facilities,
will be merged with Ten Alps' own TV and radio company, Ten Alps Broadcasting.



                       Ten Alps Strategy in broadcasting



Ten Alps has two communications offerings.  It provides marketing services to 70
or so clients in advertising and events - such as EMI, Microsoft, NCR, SONY,
Sunsail, and P&O.   And it offers its own content direct to the public through
broadcast production on BBC TV and Radio, Sky One, Channel 5 and elsewhere.



In this second area, political programming is a focus for Ten Alps, which
includes Bob Geldof and political broadcaster Brian Walden on its five-strong
board, and the Brook Lapping acquisition is a key addition.



'Nowhere are communications more critical today than in politics, where the
public need to be reached and engaged more than ever,' said Geldof.



 'Meanwhile the business opportunity is that factual programming is an area
where we can gain exploitation rights in the content we have developed - which
is something Brook Lapping already have achieved.'



In the past week, Ten Alps has completed Power, a pilot TV programme for the
BBC, aimed at addressing the need to re-engage younger people in politics. The
pilot was the only independent programme selected from over 70 bids.



Ten Alps also produces Sunday Service, the flagship political programme for BBC
Radio 5 Live, and is producing its 3-hour weekly replacement show from January.



And Ten Alps' agency division, Know Comment, now represents over 30 political
commentators such as Steve Norris and Charlie Whelan, for media appearance work,
as well as carrying out consultancy, video projects and training in the public
sector.



'We will now offer political content ranging from live radio on the one hand, to
high-budget TV documentaries with global reach on the other,' said Geldof   'No
other UK independent production company with that scope.'



'As people know I have always been involved in politics, business and the media.
  And with this Brook Lapping deal, the three all come together.'



                      History of Brook Lapping Productions



The Brook Lapping group has won awards and acclaim around the world.  In
September 2002, the Wall Street Journal, in reviewing Avenging Terror, described
Brook Lapping as 'the acme, the Rolls-Royce, of documentary makers.'



The group took its current shape when BLH purchased the entire share capital of
Brook Lapping Productions, itself previously formed through the merger of Brook
Productions Limited and Brian Lapping Associates in 1997.



Brook Productions was founded in 1982, in response to the launch of Channel 4.
Brook produced Channel 4's political programme A Week in Politics, which was
recommissioned regularly for some 15 years, with Anne Lapping as executive
producer.  Brook Productions' output included a number of prize-winning
documentary series, such as The Kennedys, The Windsors, Untold: Slavery in
Britain (produced by Philip Whitehead) and dramas including A Vote for Hitler
and A Strike out of Time.



Brian Lapping Associates was founded in 1988 and had its greatest success with
The Death of Yugoslavia  (series producer Norma Percy) which won more than a
dozen international awards, was broadcast in more than 40 countries and won
praise worldwide.  It followed a tradition of similar documentary programmes
(also multi award-winning) including The Second Russian Revolution, Watergate,
Fall of the Wall and Death of Apartheid.  Its first production, a drama
documentary for the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, starring
Ian Mc Kellan as Hitler.



Since the 1997 reorganisation, the group's most prominent programmes have been
international co-productions with transmissions on the BBC and Channel 4 in the
UK, including:



•        The Money Changers (3 x 1 hour on the history of Monetary Union in
Europe)

•        The 50 Years War; Israel and the Arabs (6 x 1 hour on war and peace in
the Middle East.  Silver Spire, San Francisco International Film Festival)

•        Hostage (3 x 1 hour on the seizure of westerners in Beirut and how
their governments responded.  Historical Documentary Prize, Festival
International du Film d'Histoire)

•        Playing the China Card (2 x 1 hour on how Richard Nixon and Mao Tse
Tung bridged the ideological divide and how their successors kept it up.  US
Peabody Award and finalist for International EMMY)

•        Finest Hour (4 x 1 hour on how the British faced Hitler's assault from
May to November 1940)

•        Diana, Story of a Princess (4 x 1 hour biography, on ITV)

•        Endgame in Ireland (4 x 1 hour in which three British Prime Ministers,
four Irish, one US President and the leaders of the parties and the terror
movements in Northern Ireland all describe in unprecedented detail the
breakthroughs and blockages on the road to peace.  Winner Peabody Award 2002,
finalist for a BAFTA, RTS, and Grierson)

•        Avenging Terror (2 x 1 hour on how President Bush and his cabinet first
decided then implemented their response to 9/11, with insider accounts from the
top figures in Washington, Moscow, Islamabad, Kabul, London etc, pre-sold to 25
countries  for the first anniversary)



                                More information



www.tenalps.com



Press enquiries: Sheila Gunn

07884 437934



Ten Alps Head office

0207 089 3686



Brook Lapping office

020 7428 3100




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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange