[modeleng] The latest on ME
- From: Alan Stepney <alesara2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 10:13:18 +0000 (GMT)
YORKSHIRE buyout firm Endless has rescued the special
interest magazine business of collapsed publishing
group Highbury House Communications.
Endless, a Leeds-based £100m buyout and turnaround
fund launched at the end of last year by former Ernst
& Young insolvency specialist Garry Wilson, has paid
an undisclosed seven-figure sum for a clutch of the
UK's oldest hobby titles and provided working capital
for future expansion.
Yorkshire-based publishing entrepreneur Peter
Harkness, previously chairman of Hull-based IT
research firm the Butler Group, assisted Endless with
the transaction.
Highbury House, the magazine publisher in which former
Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie owned a 20 per cent stake,
went into administration last week with debts of
around £40m.
Since then SMD Publishing bought lads' magazine Front,
film title HotDog and DVD World and its computer
magazines were sold to Imagine Publishing for an
estimated £7m.
Highbury announced earlier this month that its 30
gaming, technology, entertainment and special-interest
titles would be put up for sale after talks with its
lenders, Royal Bank of Scotland and Allied Irish Bank,
collapsed.
Mr MacKenzie spent about £1.5m on his stake in the
company, becoming chairman and chief executive.
But last month he admitted he had been "defeated" by
debts of £29.5m and quit Highbury House.
The business bought by Endless includes 45 staff based
in Orpington, Kent, and has been renamed Encanta Media
and publishes titles including The Woodworker,
Practical Wood-worker, Model Boats, Gardens Monthly,
Popular Patchwork, Model Engineering, Military
Modelling and Radio Controlled Modelling and
Electronics.
The division had a turnover of around £6m before
Highbury's collapse ? and was profitable.
Endless completed the transaction within 14 days of
its first contact with the accountants who were
assisting Highbury's board prior to the group's
demise.
Mr Wilson said: "We are delighted to have brought
together the funding to secure the future of this
quality, established business."
Mr Harkness said: "The investment by Endless helps
secure the future of a business that publishes some of
the UK's oldest and best-loved specialist consumer
magazines.
"A key component of the deal was the speed with which
Endless could act, as well as the professionalism of
its advisory team."
Alan
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