TIDMWRN
RNS Number : 9042S
Worthington Group PLC
29 September 2014
Worthington Group plc ("the Company" or "Worthington")
29(th) September 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Worthington Group plc to acquire digital media, events and
branding portfolio
Worthing Group plc is pleased to announce the acquisition of a
number of different media investments. Assets within the portfolio
include:
-- The Digital Marketing Show, launched last year which
attracted 4,500 visitors and is expected to attract more than
10,000 this year at the UK's premier exhibition site at Excel in
London. The show was nominated for Best Launch show at the industry
awards this year.
-- The Great British Entrepreneurs Awards, sponsored by RBS is
the event celebrating Britain's business community.
-- In the consumer space, the portfolio embraces cycling, one of
the biggest trends in fitness since golf and publishes Essential
Cyclist online.
-- Britain Means Business, event aimed at encouraging Britain's growing SME market.
-- The Digital Marketing Magazine, and also one of the leading
business to business online news sites
Customers served by teams within the portfolio include:
-- Tech giant Dell - where the team provides original content
-- The UK leading accountancy firm Kingston Smith
-- Insurance giant Axa
-- Brand leader in the automotive space BMW (Mini)
-- Global business services company Fed EX,
-- Nat West Bank
-- Technology leader Oki.
-- In Russia and central Europe, the advertising and marketing
arm works for both Coca-Cola and Danone.
Worthington is forming a new subsidiary Worthington Media
Portfolio Limited (WMP) to hold these investments and further media
acquisitions as the group rapidly expands its portfolio. Leading
the team joining WMP is event and exhibition veteran Simon Burton.
Mr Burton is currently CEO of Exposure Communications and founder
of The Great British Entrepreneurs Award; previously Mr Burton
created and sold shows including the Exhibiting Show, London Venue
Expo and Energy Solutions Expo: buyers included UBM plc. Mr Burton
also advises a host of clients on branding and marketing
particularly in the sports and business to business sectors.
Commenting on the announcement today Mr Burton said,
"Acquisitions form an important part of our growth strategy. The
majority of marketers believe that spending on digital marketing
will soon exceed their traditional marketing budgets, yet there are
a lot of businesses out there, in particular in the exhibition and
events industry, where media owners aren't exploiting the
relationship they have with the communities they serve. Teaming
with Worthington provides us with the access to capital markets
that we need to go out on the acquisition trail."
It's this convergence of Content, Community and Commerce that
has prompted Mr Burton, leading the new formed Worthington
subsidiary to start planning to develop a crowd funding platform.
"We engage with thousands of entrepreneurs and investors via our
events and publications and we want to create a market place where
great businesses can find the funding they need to grow" commented
Simon.
Welcoming the acquisition, Doug Ware the CEO of Worthington
Group plc said, 'We wanted to do this deal for three reasons. First
to give us exceptional financial returns. The second was to bring
valuable expertise into the group when it comes to future
acquisitions. And thirdly to give us eyes and ears on the ground in
new markets where the new team operates. It's like having our own
sales force on five continents."
The portfolio of media assets are expected to generate net
profits of US $1.5m in 2015 having already generated US $345,000 in
the six months to end of June 2014, with further substantial growth
in 2016 forecast. The portfolio has offices supplemented by
associates in the UK and in Russia, Turkey, Central Europe,
Australia and the USA.
Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to
shareholders' approval and the production of a prospectus, the
vendors will be issued with 2.5m Worthington ordinary shares.
Developing on the reasons for the deal Mr Ware said, "Digital
media has been one of the fastest growing sectors throughout the
recession and is set to grow rapidly with the improving economic
climate. Advertising and marketing has historically been highly
rated by the stock market and, with the advances in technology that
creates so many more routes to market for brands and institutions,
the media sector is set to grow exponentially over the coming
years. Not only do companies within the sector provide excellent
long term return on capital potential they can also produce
excellent trading profits and cash flow which is essential to
balancing our portfolio of assets".
By way of illustration of the growth potential in the market and
Worthington's portfolio, writing in Forbes magazine, Michael
Brenner, Vice President of Global Marketing at SAP said, "The
social, mobile web has digitized information and allowed us all to
connect with anyone, anywhere. When we need information, we can
find it instantly. But digital disruption is about more than just
information. As brands, we need to kill promotional marketing
messages and start providing customer-centric information that is
helpful to our target customers. But we need to go even further
than that if we want to break through all the noise. One of the
biggest trends I am seeing involves brands acting as producers -
going beyond the publisher mentality and setting up newsrooms and
production studios. Netflix ("House of Cards"), Red Bull (Media
House) and Amazon (Alpha House) are just the first wave of this
emerging trend."
Expanding on reasons for the deal, Mr Ware went on to say, 'In
addition to the intrinsic growth potential of the portfolio the
team brings many other skills including the ability to spot hidden
value in brands and in intangible business assets such as its
customer base, reputation and heritage. Our portfolio now brings
world class expertise in those areas."
In terms of geographic reach and the ability to find deals in
some key market places Mr Ware said,' The acquisition of this
portfolio provides Worthington with the eyes and ears that I want
us to have out in the market place and it brings with it an
extensive network of associated offices including Moscow, Kiev and
Istanbul as well as London and the Middle East. Through their
offices and contacts we've got feet on the ground in different
geographic locations keeping an eye out for opportunities for
future investments."
About Worthington Group Plc ("Worthington")
Worthington (Stock Exchange LSE: WRN) is a British investment
company that celebrates its 60th anniversary as a London Stock
Exchange main market listed company this year. The company has four
areas of investment focus: property, litigation claims, new economy
and emerging markets. The Company believes that exceptional
shareholder returns can be achieved by utilising its main market
Sterling paper to acquire investments in these sectors
worldwide.
Note: Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement,
including descriptions of Equity Media Partners Limited and
Worthington Group plc strategy and plans, as well as expectations
for future revenue and earnings, reflect Equity Media Partners
Limited and Worthington Group plc current views and assumptions
with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks,
uncertainties and assumptions. There are many factors that may
cause actual results achieved by Equity Media Partners Limited and
Worthington Group plc to differ materially from expectations for
future results and expectations that may be expressed in or form an
assumption of such forward-looking statements. Such factors include
risks related to the day to day business of both companies, client
volatility, sales fluctuations, the general economic climate,
political and environment and other risks, cancellation due to
weather of events and exhibitions, software failures and
interruption to service to customers due to technical problems,
acquisition delays and failure as well as other uncertainties
related to the results of Equity Media Partners Limited and
Worthington Group plc including risks of delays or closure of
projects, price falls, currency fluctuations and changes in
contract terms, legislation and administrative practices, as well
as competition risk and other unforeseen factors. If one or more of
such risks or factors of uncertainty were to materialise, or should
one or more of the statements provided prove to be incorrect,
actual developments may differ materially from the forward-looking
statements contained in this announcement. Equity Media Partners
Limited and Worthington Group plc are not under any duty to update
the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement or to
adjust such statements to actual results, except as may be required
by law.
Enquiries:
Charlotte Parham, Media information Tel: +44 203 291 1872
Or email: media@worthingtongroupplc.com
PD Cosec - Company Secretary Tel: +44 208 940 0963
Website: www.worthingtongroupplc.com
Statement ends.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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