10th Apr 2025 12:47
(Alliance News) - Brave Bison PLC on Thursday reported a jump in annual profit and announced the acquisition of influencer marketing agency The Fifth from News UK & Ireland Ltd, as it forecast revenue and profit will exceed market expectations in 2025.
The acquisition of The Fifth will result in News UK becoming a top 10 shareholder in Brave Bison, as upon completion of the acquisition, Brave Bison will issue 40 million ordinary shares to News UK worth GBP1 million. News UK will, therefore, own a stake of 3.1% in Brave Bison.
News UK is part of News Corp, the owner of the Times, the Sun and the Wall Street Journal newspapers.
The Fifth was acquired by Brave Bison for a total consideration of up to GBP7.6 million.
Brave Bison is a London-based firm that specialises in digital marketing and technology that partners with businesses to leverage digital advertising channels.
News UK will receive 25% of profits generated by The Fifth over the next three years, being capped at GBP6 million.
Brave Bison intends to combine The Fifth with SocialChain, its social media advertising and influencer marketing practice.
Brave Bison Chair Oliver Green said: "News UK has a culture of innovation, and we're honoured to have been chosen as custodians of The Fifth in driving the business forward."
This acquisition comes alongside the release of Brave Bison's full-year results, in which the company reported a 76% rise in pretax profit to GBP2 million in 2024, from GBP1.1 million in 2023.
However, Brave Bison's 2024 revenue went down 8.0% to GBP32.8 million from GBP35.7 million in 2023. Yet, 2024 net revenue was GBP21.3 million, rising 2.0% from GBP220.9 million.
Excluding net revenue of GBP200,000 from US operations, which the company said were scaled back during the period, Brave Bison had a net revenue of GBP21.1 million, up 8% from GBP19.5 million in 2023.
The firm declared a final dividend of approximately 0.02 pence per share for 2024, its first dividend in 12 years as a listed business.
Looking forward, Brave Bison intends to implement a progressive dividend policy to return excess cash to shareholders.
Furthermore, following its acquisitions of other businesses and healthy trading in the first quarter of 2025, the company expects 2025 revenue and adjusted profit to exceed current market expectations.
Shares in Brave Bison rose 12% to 2.58 pence in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Olivia Mason-Myhill, Alliance News reporter
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