1st Jun 2006 07:01
Ideal Shopping Direct PLC01 June 2006 1 June 2006 Ideal Shopping Direct Plc Acquisition of Superstore TV Limited Ideal Shopping Direct Plc ("Ideal"), Britain's leading independent multi-channelTV home shopping business, today announces its first acquisition. Ideal has agreed to purchase Superstore TV Limited ("Superstore") from SimplyMedia TV Limited, the television broadcast and on-line media company owned byHenry Scott and media entrepreneur Mike Luckwell. Under the terms of theacquisition agreement, Ideal will purchase the entire share capital ofSuperstore TV for £0.5m, and repay £1m of intercompany loans, making a totalconsideration of £1.5m, all of which is goodwill. The consideration will befunded from the existing cash resources of Ideal. Superstore is a product design, sourcing and wholesale business with a sourcingand quality control office in Fuzhou in mainland China, and a product design andsales office near Manchester. Superstore has historically sourced a variety ofcraft products for wholesale customers in the UK market. Although loss-making in2005, Superstore has recently won a number of new accounts, including a contractto supply craft products into Asda stores, and is forecast to be profitable in2006. Ideal expects the acquisition to be earnings neutral in 2006 (beforeamortisation of goodwill) and earnings enhancing in 2007. Ideal also confirmed today that it plans to close its niche channel, JewelleryVault, in July. This channel was launched last year but has not generatedsufficient turnover to support the costs of a standalone channel. The JewelleryVault concept will continue on Ideal's main Ideal World channel. Theelimination of Jewellery Vault's losses will remove its negative impact on thecore business performance, although there will be a one-off exceptional chargeof £400k in the first half of 2006 to cover exit costs. Andrew Fryatt, Chief Executive of Ideal Shopping Direct Plc, said: "The acquisition of Superstore is a key strategic move for Ideal and one whichis highly complementary to our core business. It gives us the ability to sourceproducts directly from overseas manufacturers, providing innovative andcompetitive merchandise for our successful Create & Craft TV and web business.Looking ahead, we expect that this new supply chain will enable us to achievemargin benefits in our other merchandise categories. We will also continue todevelop Superstore's wholesaling business, sourcing products in craft and othercategories complementary to our existing product range." For further information, please contact: Ideal Shopping Direct Plc Tel: 08700 780 704 Jim Hodkinson, Chairman Andrew Fryatt, CEO Mike Camp, Finance Director Reputation Inc Tel: 020 7758 2800 Tom Wyatt Notes to Editors Ideal Shopping Direct currently operates 4 shopping channels: 1. "Ideal World" on Sky, Freeview and NTL 2. "Create and Craft", which addresses the niche hobby & craft market, on Sky 3. "Ideal Vitality", which focuses on Health, Beauty & Fitness on Sky 4. "Jewellery Vault", which is a falling price jewellery auction channel, launched in July 2005, on Sky. Each channel is supported by a transactional website. Ideal was advised by Landsbanki Corporate Finance on the acquisition ofSuperstore. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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