News blog
Coolabi
- BY: Andrew Hore |
- POSTED: 09/04/2009 |
Coolabi is believed to be in talks to acquire the literary assets of Chorion, which includes Agatha Christie and her characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
At least the management knows what it is buying. Coolabi chief executive Jeremy Banks and fellow director Nick James were both directors of Chorion when it was taken private with the backing of 3i. As well as the literary estate assets, Chorion owns a number of character properties, such as Mr Men, the Wombles, Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker and the characters of Enid Blyton, including Noddy. In 2007 Chorion acquired Copyrights Group, a licensing and merchandising agency handling the characters of Beatrix Potter and Paddington Bear.
In the spring of 2006, Chorion was acquired for £111m by Planet Acquisitions, a buyout vehicle of 3i and Chorion‘s management. Nick James was a shareholder. It appears that Coolabi is only talking about buying the literary assets, including Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Georges Simenon and Dennis Wheatley.
A price of between £30m and £50m has been suggested. Venture capital group 3i is short of cash so its share of that cash would be useful even though it would hardly dent its borrowings. That price would represent an enormous acquisition for Coolabi.
Banks has always maintained that there were institutional investors willing to back him if he found a large acquisition. Coolabi shares were suspended on 8 April 2009 at 10.5p, which values the company at £3.56m.
Net debt was £610,000 at the end of December 2008. Some of the purchase price will have to come from a share issue but there could be a significant increase in debt as well.
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