Proposed Dividend & Sale
NewMedia SPARK PLC
08 March 2004
NewMedia Spark plc
Proposed Spuetz €23.2m Dividend and Partial Sale of Spuetz Shareholding
NewMedia Spark plc ('Spark') announces that the Management and Supervisory
Boards of Spuetz AG ('Spuetz'), in which Spark holds a 68% shareholding, have
resolved to propose a dividend distribution of €23.2m (€4.65 per entitled Spuetz
share) to the forthcoming Spuetz General Meeting. Spark's share of this proposed
dividend, which if approved by the General Meeting is expected to be paid by
early May 2004, will be approximately €15.7m. In addition, Spark has agreed to
sell 1,524,350 Spuetz shares ex-dividend for a total consideration of €10m. The
combination of these events will result in Spark receiving cash of €25.7m which
can be remitted to the UK and Spark will retain a holding in Spuetz of 1,861,092
shares, representing 37% of Spuetz's voting stock. The attributable asset value
in Spark's books of its 68% Spuetz shareholding prior to these events was
approximately €38m, and the overall impact of these events on Spark's asset
value per share is expected to be broadly neutral.
In December 2003 Spark received €3.6m consequent on tendering part of its Spuetz
shareholding into a Spuetz tender offer to buy back part of its own share
capital.
Spuetz has also announced that it has agreed to take an indirect shareholding of
12.5% in the Twister Group. The Twister Group is a substantial established
business that provides services for media and television companies relating to
interactive mass response. In Germany, the Twister Group is active through its
subsidiary digame.de and is the market leader. The Group has a record of several
years of profitable growth, and Spuetz believes that it has the potential for
strong expansion in the future.
Commenting on these developments, Spark's CEO Michael Whitaker said:
'One of the major structural issues which Spark has faced over the past year has
been that the majority of our consolidated cash holdings have been held within
Spuetz and were not available to be utilised in the UK. We are pleased that, by
way of both the proposed Spuetz dividend and the sale of part of our Spuetz
shareholding at asset value, Spark's UK cash balances will be increased by
€25.7m. This is in addition to the €3.6m that we received late last year from
the Spuetz tender offer. We are also pleased to retain a substantial
shareholding in Spuetz, which following its investment in the Twister Group we
believe now has improved prospects. We note that following the announcement in
Germany of Spuetz's intention to invest in Twister, the Spuetz share price has
risen sharply.
We believe that these events justify our decision over the past year not to
accept offers for our Spuetz shareholding at levels below the effective asset
value of this shareholding in our books.
Whilst we will of course seek to maximise the value of our remaining
shareholding in Spuetz, and we regard the proposal by Spuetz to invest in the
Twister Group as encouraging in this regard, these developments will also free
Spark to devote itself to the further development of its core UK venture capital
portfolio. This portfolio is now beginning to mature, and a significant number
of our investee companies are profitable and are making strong progress. We
continue to believe that on aggregate the companies in our investment portfolio
have the potential for returns significantly in excess of their conservative
carrying value in our accounts, and we hope to report further progress by
portfolio companies over the coming year.'
8 March 2004
For further information:
NewMedia SPARK plc 020 7851 7777
Mike Whitaker, Chief Executive Officer
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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