Venture capital firm North Promotions, a company funded by Edge Performance Venture Capital Trust, has made a £4.2 million takeover approach for Coolabi, the distributor of children’s character Bagpuss.
Venture capital firm North Promotions, a company funded by Edge Performance Venture Capital Trust, has made a £4.2 million takeover approach for Coolabi, the distributor of children’s character Bagpuss.
North Promotions, an investment vehicle that is already the company’s biggest shareholder with a 17 per cent stake, has offered to pay 7.75p a share for AIM-listed Coolabi, which is a media rights owner. Alongside Bagpuss, the cloth cat made famous by a TV series, Coolabi also has the rights to the greetings card brand Purple Ronnie.
The takeover comes after Coolabi reported a dramatic drop in revenue, which has fallen from £961,670 in the first six months of last year to £605,514 in the same period this year.
A statement from Coolabi says, ‘In arriving at this position, the independent directors, having consulted with the major shareholders of the company, considered alternative options available to the Company including, inter alia, continuing its current strategy of organic growth and an equity fundraising.
‘As a result, the independent directors have concluded that the potential offer is the best option presently available to the company.’
But the company, which bought the licensing and merchandising rights and became the distributor on behalf of the owner to Bagpuss in 2008 as part of the £400,000 acquisition of Licensing By Design, warns there is ‘no certainty that a firm offer will be made’.
In March, London-based entertainment and media business fund manager Edge Investment Management announced that total funds raised for the Edge Performance VCT, which launched five years ago, have reached more than £100 million.
Edge funds have invested in entertainment and media companies operating in the character licensing, digital media and the live music sector where it has made investments in hundreds of UK concert promoters working with musicians including Franz Ferdinand, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
