R4E.L Regulatory News (R4E)

7 Feb 2007 07:01

First Artist Corporation PLC07 February 2007 7 February 2007 First Artist Corporation plc Trading Update First Artist Corporation plc (AIM:FAN) ('First Artist'), the entertainment andsports marketing group, announces a trading update for the five month periodending 31st January. This includes the Christmas trading period and the Januaryfootball transfer window. Since its acquisition in November 2006, Dewynters' trading has been strong withit benefiting from the continued buoyant West End market. Dewynters has beencontracted to a number of new West End productions including Lord of the Rings,Grease and Equus, and the pipeline of new productions remains good. NewmanDisplays, Dewynters' signage division, is on target to deliver strong results,having worked on a number of high profile films including The Queen, CasinoRoyale and Dream Girls. Our football division has had its busiest January transfer window to date, beinginvolved with over 30 transfer deals. This includes the largest footballtransfer of the window, Ashley Young who moved from Watford to Aston Villa for£9.65m. This strong performance was spread evenly across our three offices ofLondon, Milan and Copenhagen. The Finishing Touch had an excellent Christmas trading period with turnover atits highest level in 18 years, surpassing last year's record-breaking result. Sponsorship Consulting Limited has had a good trading period, having concludedmajor deals with NEC and Shell. Optimal Wealth Management and First Artist Entertainment have also traded well. Jon Smith, CEO of First Artist commented: "The group has been transformed over the past 18 months following theacquisition and successful integration of a number of businesses. I am delightedto now see the benefits of the enlarged group coming through with a pleasingincrease in the cross referral of income. With strong cash flow and anincreasing order book we are confident of reporting further progress at ourinterim results which we plan to announce at the end of April 2007." Enquiries: First Artist Corporation plcJon Smith, Chief ExecutiveRichard Hughes, Group Managing Director Tel: +44 (0) 20 8900 1818 Hudson Sandler Ltd Michael SandlerNick Lyon Tel: +44 (0) 20 7796 4133 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange