Impact Day
Immedia Broadcasting plc
12 December 2003
For Immediate Release Friday 12th December 2003
IMMEDIA BROADCASTING PLC
FUND RAISING AND FLOTATION
ON THE ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT MARKET ('AIM')
Immedia Broadcasting PLC ('Immedia' or 'the Company', RIC: IME.L), the provider
of live tailored in-store radio, has today published its admission document for
its flotation on AIM. Teather & Greenwood, Nominated Adviser and Broker to
Immedia, has successfully raised on behalf of the Company and certain sellers
£5m before expenses by means of an institutional Placing ('the Placing').
Dealings in Immedia's shares commence today.
Summary of Immedia and Placing statistics:
•Immedia designs and operates and owns radio stations providing live
tailored radio to retailers, broadcasting to over 3,000 retail outlets
throughout the UK.
•Immedia currently broadcasts Newsagents Radio ('NAR') to 2,300 CTNs and
convenience stores and Lloydspharmacy Live to approximately 1,260 Lloyds
Pharmacies.
•On 1 December 2003, Immedia signed a contract with Dixons to provide a
radio station for up to 50 of its stores for an initial trial period of
three months and early next year is due to launch a station to a leading
chain of Norwegian pharmacies
•The Company has an experienced management team, which is led by Bruno
Brookes.
•4,090,910 Ordinary Shares of 10p at 110p per share were placed with
institutional investors raising approximately £4.5m before expenses, with
499,400 Shares being sold by certain selling investors. Net proceeds
receivable by the Company will be £3.77m.
•The fund raising for the Company will represent approximately 35 per
cent. of the enlarged issued share capital following the Placing.
•Following Admission to AIM on 12th December 2003, Immedia will have
11,707,910 Ordinary Shares in issue, valuing the Company at the Placing
price of 110p per share at £12.88m.
Commenting on the successful fund raising and flotation, Bruno Brookes, Chief
Executive of Immedia, said:
'We have been delighted with the strong demand for Immedia's shares. We now have
the funds and the company structure to grow the business aggressively building
on the considerable market share we have in providing live radio to independent
retailers, as well as significant contracts with leading retail groups such as
Lloyds Pharmacy and Dixons. Immedia is at advanced negotiations with other well
known retailers for further subscription stations and remains on track to
broadcast its Newsagents Radio station to over 5,000 retail units by the end of
2004'.
For further information please contact:
Immedia Tel: 01635 572800
Bruno Brookes, Chief Executive
Teather & Greenwood Tel: 020 7426 9000
Stephen Austin
Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Bobby Morse/Mary-Jane Johnson
High resolution images are available for the media free of charge from
www.vismedia.co.uk
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON IMMEDIA
Immedia designs and operates live radio stations providing tailored commercial
programming to retail outlets. In February 2002, Immedia launched its first
fully operational live retail radio station, Newsagents Radio, which now
broadcasts its tailored programming to approximately 2,300 convenience stores in
the UK.
In April 2003, Immedia launched Lloydspharmacy Live after signing a five year
broadcast contract with Lloyds Pharmacy to broadcast this station. On 1 December
2003, Immedia signed a contract with Dixons to provide a radio station for up to
50 of its stores for an initial trial period of three months. Immedia is
expecting to launch a pilot subscription-based radio station for a further
national retail chain within the next three months and has agreed terms in
principle to launch a Norwegian language station to be broadcast to over 100
Vitus stores, a chain of Norwegian pharmacies, which is expected to be launched
in April 2004. In addition, terms have been agreed in principle with retailers
which could lead to approximately a further 5,000 stores for NAR.
The Market
In-store radio is not a new concept and many companies claim to offer retailers
an in-store 'radio' solution. Market research has shown that the presence of
music can increase the amount of time customers spend in-store (source: POPAI -
1998). However, until Immedia developed its live tailored radio product, the
Directors believe that most in-store music radio stations available to retailers
in the UK were either wholly or partly pre-recorded.
The Directors believe that, whilst pre-recorded music and messages can provide a
pleasant environment, they fail to engage the retailer, consumer or employee, in
the way that a live radio station is able. For certain products the purchase
decision is often made at the point of sale ('POS'), leading to POS advertising
growing more rapidly than any other medium in the marketing mix. In-store radio
offers the advertiser the opportunity to communicate with the consumer at the
POS.
The Immedia Product
Immedia's principal product is a live broadcast that blends a selection of music
(intended to satisfy the demographic type and anticipated mood of the customers)
with appropriate real time presenters, humour, trivia, news and information
specifically targeted at the consumer and the retailer's staff. The Directors
believe that this is a higher quality product which can carry advertising
message more effectively.
The Directors believe that the quality of the Immedia product enhances the
in-store experience generally and can increase sales of advertised products. The
Immedia stations can also provide retailers with an effective media to
communicate with and train staff. Immedia measures the impact of its campaigns
by monitoring EPOS data from a sample of stores so that it is able to illustrate
to advertisers the cost effectiveness of their advertisements. The Directors
believe that other broadcast advertising media do not offer such a direct link
between the advertisement and sales.
The Immedia Business Models
Immedia operates two business models:
•Free to retailer stations - like NAR, Immedia broadcasts to convenience
stores and offers advertisers an effective channel of communication to a
fragmented market, where ownership ranges from independents through to large
symbol groups. Immedia expects to roll out NAR to up to approximately 2,200
Londis franchisees following an agreement with Londis (Holdings) Limited to
promote NAR to its franchisees. The retailer receives the live in-store
radio station free of charge and Immedia retains the advertising revenues
generated from the station;
•Subscription stations - like Lloydspharmacy Live, a five year contract
was signed with Lloyds Pharmacy in December 2002, with live broadcasting to
Lloyds Pharmacy stores commencing in April 2003. To date, the station has
been installed in approximately 1,260 Lloyds Pharmacy stores in the UK.
Typically Immedia charges the retailer an annual subscription fee to receive
a tailored radio station and the retailer sells airtime on the station with
Immedia being entitled to a proportion of airtime revenues.
In addition, nearly all of the advertisements broadcast over NAR and
Lloydspharmacy Live are currently produced by Immedia, generating a third stream
of revenue.
Other Contracts
Dixons
A contract was signed on 1 December 2003 with Dixons, to provide a broadcast to
its retail stores. There is an initial trial period (for up to 50 stores) of up
to three months, commencing 1 December 2003. At the end of the trial period, the
retail chain has the option to roll out the service to its other stores.
Vitus Live
Immedia has agreed terms in principle with Vitus to launch a Norwegian language
station, to be called Vitus Live, to be broadcast to over 100 Vitus pharmacies
in Norway. The station is to be based in Newbury and is anticipated to commence
broadcasting in April 2004.
Reasons for the Placing and Admission
The Company intends to raise approximately £3,770,000 (net of expenses) pursuant
to the Placing. The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to fund the
continued roll out of Newsagents Radio, repay certain outstanding loans and
debts, acquire a business and certain assets from BBME and provide working
capital for the Group. It will also provide an opportunity for certain existing
shareholders to realise part of the value of their shareholdings in the Company.
The Directors believe that the profile of the Group will be significantly
enhanced as a company whose shares are traded on AIM. It will also act as a
further incentive to management and employees through the provision of a market
for their shares.
Directors
The Board consists of the following Directors:
Geoff Howard-Spink, Non-Executive Chairman, aged 59
Geoff was a founding partner of advertising agency Lowe Howard-Spink in 1981. He
is also the non-executive chairman of Jupiter Split Capital Trust plc, a
non-executive director of Chrysalis Group plc and the New Star Investment Trust
plc.
Trevor (known as 'Bruno') Brookes, Chief Executive Offcer, aged 44
Bruno Brookes is the founder of Immedia. After a career as a radio and TV
presenter, where he collected numerous awards for his work and spent 11 years
with BBC Radio One, Bruno set up BBME which offered a number of related media
services including, design, broadcast training, artist management and broadcast
production. In November 1999, Bruno founded Immedia and has been Chief Executive
Officer since that date.
Robert Parker, Finance Director, aged 37
Robert qualified as a qualified chartered accountant in 1993. Prior to joining
Immedia in February 2002, Robert worked for National Grid plc in a strategic
capacity, was Finance Director of Eircom (UK) Limited, a start-up operator in
the UK telecommunications market, and was Head of Finance for Sumitomo Electric
Europe Limited.
Peter Teague, Non-Executive Director, aged 49
Peter qualified as a chartered accountant in 1979 and spent his early career
principally in venture capital and corporate finance. Between 1987 and 1996
Peter worked in a variety of roles within AT&T and from 1998 to 2001 was Deputy
CEO and Managing Director of the UK Region of BBC Worldwide, a commercial
division of the BBC. Currently Peter is Chief Executive Officer of Anisa (UK)
Limited, an IT services company backed by 3i plc.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange