INC.L Regulatory News (INC)

21 Nov 2005 17:57

Avanti Screenmedia Group PLC21 November 2005 Avanti Screenmedia Group plc ("Avanti" or "the Company") Strengthens board with appointment of a further non-executive director Avanti is delighted to announce the appointment with immediate effect of WilliamWyatt, aged 37, to the Board as a non executive director. William is an executive director of Caledonia Investments plc ("Caledonia") aninvestment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange. William worked for CloseBrothers Corporate Finance before joining the Caledonia group in 1997. Caledoniarecently invested £10,000,000 for a 17.92% shareholding in Avanti as part of theCompany's recent placing. John Brackenbury, CBE, Avanti Chairman said "Caledonia has a fantasticreputation as a supportive and constructive long term investor. Given the natureof the business we are now building following the recent £23 million contractgain and fund raising to build our own satellite, it is crucial that we arebacked by powerful and supportive investors. We warmly welcome William to ourboard and look forward to benefiting from his experience and wise counsel" Details of Mr Wyatt's past and present directorships are detailed below: Present Past Amber Industrial Holdings Plc Bateman Chapman (Holdings) LimitedArgo Flare Services Limited G and G Properties (Saxelbye) LimitedAvondale (City) Limited Meinl European Land LimitedBloom Engineering Company Inc Mori Group LimitedCaledonia Industrial and Services Pathoak Property Management LimitedLimitedCaledonia Investments LimitedCobehold SACrewkerne Investments LimitedExactor Sterling LimitedFB Realisations LimitedGCD International Pty LimitedGle Hi-Tech Seals LimitedHeat Exchange Industries LimitedHuntley and Sparks LimitedLakers Process Engineering LimitedMay Acoustics LimitedNova Capital Group LimitedOmniport Holdings LimitedPCC Sterling LimitedQuality HeatTechnologies Pty LimitedShalfleet Properties LimitedSt Lawrence Properties LimitedSterling Hydraulics LimitedSterling Industries PlcTerrace Hill Group PlcThe Dunchurch Lodge Stud CompanyThermo Engineers LimitedUrquhart Engineering Company Limited Mr Wyatt currently holds 4,000 shares in the Company. No further information falls to be disclosed under Schedule 2 paragraph (g) ofthe AIM rules. - Ends - For further information: Avanti Screenmedia Group PlcDavid WilliamsChief Executive Tel: 020 7749 1600 Financial PR:Binns & Co PR LtdPeter Binns Tel: 020 153 1479 Trade PR:Martin Loat, Neil BestonPropeller Communications Tel 020 7437 3370 Caledonia Investments Tel: 020 7802 8080 NOTES TO EDITORS ABOUT AVANTI •Avanti is the clear market leader in screenmedia in the UK by client sites installed, breadth of industry coverage and profits. •It has over 1200 sites with over 4,000 plasma screens showing advertising. •"Screenmedia" means TV channels at or close to the point of sale which retailers, pubs and malls use for brand promotion and advertising. •Avanti is unique in its ability to provide all elements of a screenmedia service - network, creative, media sales - using skilled and dedicated in-house resources. •Avanti also operates an emerging business supplying broadband by satellite. •In August 2005 Avanti won a right to use, in perpetuity a license to operate satellites covering Europe and potentially Africa as well. •Avanti's first satellite will launch in 2008. •The first satellite can service up to 170,000 broadband customers in Europe, or could broadcast thousands of digital TV channels. •The capacity of Avanti's license could be used to service as many as 15,000,000 broadband customers. •The Company was admitted to AIM on 9 July 2004. •Avanti generated net profit in the year to June 2005 of £2.0m on turnover of £8.4m ABOUT CALEDONIA Caledonia is a long established investment company with international scopelisted on the London Stock Exchange. In April 2003, Caledonia converted to aninvestment trust and is part of the Global Growth sector. Its performance putsit in the top quartile over 5 and 10 years to 31 October 2005. Unlike someinvestment funds Caledonia has achieved a positive absolute return over 1, 3, 5and 10 years. Moreover, Caledonia's strategy has delivered outperformanceagainst its benchmark FTSE All-Share Total Return index of 132% over the fiveyear period to 31 October 2005 and 160% over the ten year period to 31 October2005. Its total shareholder return outperformance for the 12 months to 31October 2005 was 19%. Caledonia has a policy of delivering progressive annualdividends with a 38-year record of unbroken annual dividend increases. Throughholding a diversified portfolio, Caledonia aims to maintain a medium overallrisk position. At 31 October 2005, Caledonia had an unaudited Net Asset Value of 1760p perordinary share. Based on the share price as at the end of October 2005 thediscount to its Net Asset Value per share was 7.1%. Caledonia's strategy is to focus on a portfolio of around 30 to 40 principalinvestments, where it has significant and influential stakes with a policy thatat least 50% of the total portfolio should be in quoted securities or otherliquid assets. New investments will typically be in the range £10 million to £25million. Careful control is exercised over costs, notwithstanding Caledonia'sactive and participative management style. The Board believes that Caledonia hasa long established and valuable reputation for being a supportive long terminvestor, which brings a strong deal flow of opportunities not always availableto others. Caledonia's investments are focused on a selected range of sectors where it hasgood in-house knowledge that can add value to management of investee companies.Where particular expertise is not held in-house, investments may be made throughthird party managed funds where Caledonia will often seek a significant stake inthe management company. Caledonia's selected sectors are: Financial: comprising 22% of total assets,including holdings in Close Brothers and Rathbone Brothers; Leisure and Media:comprising 14% of the total assets, including holdings in Kerzner Internationaland The Sloane Club; Managed General Funds: comprising 23% of the total assetsincluding holdings in British Empire Securities, Cobepa and a fund managed byAberforth Partners; Industrial and Services: comprising 15% of the total assets,including investments in Offshore Logistics; Property: comprising 9% of thetotal assets, including a holding in Quintain Estates; and Other and net liquidassets: comprising 17% of the total assets. The percentages of the total assetsquoted are as at 31 October 2005. As an investment trust Caledonia is not subject in the future to liability forcorporation tax on chargeable gains. As a result, Caledonia believes it will beable to build greater value for shareholders and be more appealing to retailshareholders which ultimately should contribute towards a lower discount ofCaledonia share price to Net Asset Value per share. Shown below is a table# illustrating how the value of £100 invested in Caledoniaover a period of 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years to 31 October 2005compares with an equivalent theoretical investment in the FTSE All-Share TotalReturn Index: Period invested to 31 October 2005 1yr 3yr 5yr 10yr £ £ £ £Caledonia 138.5 276.5 233.01 368.6 FTSE All-Share Index 119.8 151.9 101.1 208.7 As can be seen in the table above, £100 invested in Caledonia shares would havegenerated a significantly higher return over 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10years than the FTSE All-Share Index. # Source Caledonia For further information please visit www.caledonia.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange