Marketing Services Financial Intelligence

Meredith changes board representative at Iris

fintellect — Sat, 19 May 2012 09:58:07 +0000

David Brown, general manager of Meredith Xlerated Marketing, has replaced Martin Reidy on the board of Iris Nation Worldwide.

Reidy was one of two nominees appointed to the Iris board earlier this year after US publishing and marketing group Meredith Corporation made a £4 million investment in the company last October (see Meredith puts two of its executives on Iris board).

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Karma share structure becomes clearer

fintellect — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:57:53 +0000

A fuller picture of ownership of the Karma Communications group has emerged after the latest annual returns have been filed showing that private equity investor Phoenix Equity Nominees holds 61.2% of the ordinary shares in the holding company Karma Communications Holdings.

Porta grants 4 million share options

fintellect — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:56:19 +0000

Porta Communications, the AIM listed public relations business, yesterday granted options over almost 4 million shares to employees, of which 2.4 million have been awarded to chief executive David Wright and finance director Keith Springall in equal amounts.

The awards will increase the company’s shares in issue or under option by 5.4% and boost Wright’s share interest to 4.7% of that capital.

Bids and Deals: May 2012

fintellect — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:16:26 +0000

WPP’s global interactive marketing agency Possible Worldwide has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Moscow-based digital marketing services agency Grape…Publicis Groupe has acquired the Beijing-based digital marketing company Longtuo and will rename it Razorfish Longtuo China…WPP’s market research network Kantar has paid US$1.2 million to acquire a minority stake in the US automotive consumer data analysis business Enprecis that will be aligned with Kantar’s existing TNS research consultancy…

Huntsworth appoints Lake Capital founder as non-executive director

fintellect — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:43:18 +0000

Lake Capital, the US private equity investment group, is gaining a place on the board of the publicly listed international public relations group Huntsworth, reflecting its near 10% shareholding in the company.

Lake will be represented by its founder and chairman Terry Graunke. Entities managed and controlled by Lake Capital and Terry Graunke own 9.82% of the voting rights in Huntsworth.

Chime buys 51% of very profitable healthcare consultancy

fintellect — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:06 +0000

Chime Communications has paid a multiple of about 9 times profit before interest and tax to acquire a 51% shareholding in Harvey Walsh, the specialist consultancy that uses healthcare data to help the pharmaceutical industry and medical practitioners improve treatment.

GM loses confidence in Facebook ads

fintellect — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:44:39 +0000

General Motors is to abandon buying advertising space on Facebook, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The report claims that the company’s marketing executives determined their paid ads “had little impact on consumers”.

Facebook plans to make an initial public offering of its shares on Friday that will put a value on the company of $105 billion. However, reports are emerging that advertisers are beginning to lose some of their earlier enthusiasm for social media, a trend that threatens to puncture the inflated valuations currently enjoyed by the sector.

Cello “optimistic” about year’s financial prospects

fintellect — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:37:04 +0000

Cello Group will confirm today that the forward pipeline of work is “solid” and the company is optimistic that its full year financial expectations will be met, despite the 24% decline in its share price that has occurred since its most recent peak on 16 March.

Sector share prices: May2012

fintellect — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:11:59 +0000

Shares in the marketing communications sector continued to outperform the FTSE All-Share Index in the month to 12 May, but both indices lost ground over the period.

The marketing industry’s MSFI Index fell by 1.75% to 27.9 (Jan 2001: 100) while the FTSE All-Share Index fell by 2.51%.

Contributing to the drop in the MSFI Index were big falls in the share price of Chime Communications and Cello Group. Chime’s price decline was prompted by two pieces of bad news – first that founders Lord Bell and Piers Pottinger want to buy out much of the Bell Pottinger public relations division, and secondly that trading performance in the public relations division is falling short of expectations (see Chime in PR profit downturn: Bell Pottinger buyout progressing).

The price decline at Cello appears not to be related to any recent event other than disappointment at the loss reported in March after writing down the value of the Farm agency that it no longer owns, and perhaps fears that the group’s trading situation has not improved much since (see Cello loses £0.6m after exceptionals of £4m).

The biggest share price fall was inevitably at Adventis Group where problems have arisen in raising additional share capital and the bank is threatening to pull the plug (see Adventis faces administration threat after failing to raise new capital). Shares in Huntsworth also lost 10% of their value in the month after reporting disappointing results (see Huntsworth profit almost halved).

On a brighter note, Progressive Digital Media’s share price improved by 25.9% in the month after the company raised more share capital and converted loans from its founder Mike Danson into shares (see Progressive raising £20m new capital: Danson loans to be converted).

Whither Red Brick Road without Tesco?

fintellect — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:55:07 +0000

The loss of the Tesco business, announced last month, could propel The Red Brick Road into a much tougher financial position as it always relied on advance payments from its clients to help fund the business and Tesco was a very big client. What’s more, the principal shareholding directors may have to suffer substantial salary cuts although the departure of Paul Weinberger may mitigate that pain.