Last checked at 24 May 2010 12:28
Flying Brands Limited
Acquisition
The Board of Flying Brands Limited ("Flying Brands" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the acquisition of the customer base and goodwill and related assets of Flowers Direct, one of the UK's top flower delivery companies. These assets are being acquired from Flowers Direct Online Limited (in Administration) ("Flowers Direct"). The total consideration of £2.95 million is made up of £1.45 million in cash from the Company's existing resources and £1.5 million in loan notes which are redeemable 15 months from the date of issue.
The assets being acquired by Flying Brands include Flowers Direct's websites, uniform resource locators, its intellectual property, its relay business (a linked network of circa 750 florists allowing orders to be passed between florists) and a database of approximately 300,000 customers, of which over 100,000 have ordered in the last 12 months.
The transaction will increase significantly the scale of Flying Brands' Gifts division and the Board believes that the Flowers Direct business will be complementary to Flying Brands existing flower business. It is anticipated there will be substantial cost savings arising from putting the two businesses together.
As part of the transaction the Flowers Direct e-Commerce and Relay teams will be joining Flying Brands.
The Flowers Direct business which has gross assets of £2.95 million generated £6 million of revenues and made a loss of £0.5 million for the financial year to 31 March 2010. That loss included a number of costs that will be eliminated on the acquisition of the business by Flying Brands.
Mr Stephen Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Flying Brands commented on the deal:
"We are delighted to have acquired the Flowers Direct business. The transaction will significantly strengthen our online business and will give us access to our own relay network of florists. Although there will be substantial cost savings arising from the combination of the two businesses the primary purpose of the acquisition is to provide a strong platform for future growth particularly in the online and relay markets."
In addition a third party investor has agreed to subscribe for 200,000 new Flying Brands units at 75 pence per unit and an application has been made to the UK Listing Authority and to the London Stock Exchange for 200,000 new units to be admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities and it is expected that dealings will commence at 8:00am on 25 May 2010.
The new units will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing issued units in the Company.
Following this issue, the Company's issued capital at 25 May 2010 will consist of 28,073,735 units with voting rights (one vote per unit). The Company does not hold any units in Treasury. Therefore, the total number of units in the Company with voting rights is 28,073,735.
The above figure of 28,073,735 units may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Enquires:
| Flying Brands Limited |
| 01245 228 300 |
| Stephen Cook, Chief Executive Officer |
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| Anthony Gee, Group Finance Director |
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| Singer Capital Markets Limited |
| 020 3205 7500 |
| Jeff Keating |
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| Claes Spång |
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| Smithfield Consultants |
| 020 7360 4900 |
| John Kiely |
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Notes to editors
Jersey based Flying Brands Limited (LSE: FBDU) is a multi brand and multi channel home shopping specialist. Founded in 1981, it was admitted to the Official List of the London Stock Exchange in 1993. The Group operates the following divisions:
·; Gifts (Flying Flowers)
·; Garden (Gardening Direct, one of the UK's largest mail order bedding plants and gardening products operations; Garden Bird Supplies, a leading provider of food and accessories for birds and other wildlife)
·; Entertainment (Listen2, a leading mail order audio books, nostalgic music, DVD and video home shopping retailer; Benham, the first day cover stamps, coins and collectables specialist)
More information can be found at: www.flyingbrands.com