Entertainment One Regulatory News (ETO)

17 Apr 2008 08:54

Entertainment One Ltd17 April 2008 17 April 2008 Entertainment One Ltd. Trading Update In its first full year of operations since listing on AIM, Entertainment OneLtd. ("Entertainment One" or the "Company") reports that it is well advanced inexecuting its strategy to build a leading independent internationalentertainment content and distribution business. • The board is pleased with the progress that has been made in buildingits multi-territory filmed content entertainment business. The Company hascompleted three significant acquisitions in the year to 31 March 2008: o Seville Pictures in Canada;o Contender Entertainment Group in the UK; ando RCV Entertainment in Holland and Belgium. These acquisitions have successfully established the Company as a significantmulti-territory platform to distribute filmed entertainment content. Thebusiness is now benefiting from an enhanced profile within the industry and fromthe recruitment of senior-level expertise. . • A strong pipeline of film content has been built through a series ofoutput deals with independent studios and producers, including Summit, Yari andTHINKFilm. Entertainment One now has a catalogue of over 3,000 film titlesacross its different markets. • The Company's distribution business, which encompasses Canada's largestdistributor of home entertainment products and the USA's largest independentmusic and video distributor, continues to perform strongly. The Company expects its preliminary results for the 12-month trading periodended 31 March 2008 to be in line with current market expectations andanticipates announcing these results on 25 June 2008. Darren Throop, Chief Executive of Entertainment One, commented: "We have made excellent progress in our first year, putting some of the buildingblocks in place as we create an alternative to the major studios'multi-territory film distribution operations. We ended the year with a strongcash position, balance sheet and robust margins. Looking forward, we shall pursue our acquisition and consolidation strategy,with expected strong sales growth balanced out by accelerated investment in filmrights and associated marketing costs." Enquiries: Entertainment One Ltd. Darren Throop Tel: + 1 905 282 7878Giles Willits Tel: +44 (0)20 7004 2755Simon Pincombe Tel: +44 (0)20 7004 2710 Quiller Consultants Tel: +44 (0)20 7233 9444John EisenhammerClaire Kearney Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Capital Markets Limited Marc Young Tel: +44 (0)20 3205 7500James Maxwell www.entertainmentonegroup.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange