Digitalbox Publishing Holdings Limited, a digital media business based in the UK, is pleased to announce its intention to seek admission of its Ordinary Shares to trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange by way of a reverse takeover of Polemos plc. On admission, Polemos plc will be renamed Digitalbox plc.
WH Ireland Limited is acting as the nominated adviser to the Company in relation to Admission with Leander Capital Partners Limited and Peterhouse Capital Limited acting as joint brokers.
Highlights:
- The Board is seeking admission and intends to use the funds raised to build a market-leading, mobile-first digital media business through a buy and build strategy. Digitalbox has invested in its technology, infrastructure and management team to create a platform on to which acquisitions can be easily integrated with additional upside expected in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) performance and without significant impact on staff resources.
- Through its current trading brand “Entertainment Daily”, Digitalbox produces and publishes online UK entertainment news covering TV shows, showbiz and celebrity news. It generates revenue from the programmatic sale of advertising in and around the content it publishes.
- Entertainment Daily has proved the company’s ability to build strong audience engagement through the delivery of compelling content while also improving ARPU. For the year ended December 2018, Entertainment Daily had 2.2 million unique users per month, with 13 million monthly UK sessions and an average of £77 ARPU per ‘000 (showing 15% growth since 2017). The Company’s optimisation for mobile enables it to achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms for mobile publishers.
- 85% of UK adults own a smart-phone, meaning mobile has become the device of choice with which to access the internet. In fact, 75% of internet usage in the UK is nowestimated to be via a smart-phone. Advertising spend is now shifting to reflect these consumer trends, with UK mobile advertising spend growing 31% in 2017 to £5 billion and expected to have grown a further 31% in 2018. The value of mobile is set to grow further still as advertisers unlock the potential of location targeting, augmented reality and rich user data in real-time. Mobile-centric media brands which hold the attention of users these advertisers are trying to reach will benefit from this escalating value.
- The Board believes that this is the right time to consolidate the digital publishing market and has identified a pipeline of acquisition opportunities. Digitalbox currently operates within the entertainment news market in the UK and is seeking to expand into further content verticals to grow the audience served.
- The Board believes that the market trends support the Company’s strategy. Traditional publishing businesses are struggling to transition to ‘pure play’ digital models in response to falling print circulation, owing to the legacy infrastructure in place. This trend presents an opportunity as brands can be purchased, optimised and leveraged to create accretive growth for shareholders. Also, some digital-only publishing businesses would benefit from the scale and efficiencies offered by the Digitalbox platform.
- Digitalbox is led by an experienced management team, headed by CEO, James Carter who has a proven track record in building value in the media industry through work at Factory Media (which he helped found and achieved a significant exit), Dennis Publishing and EMAP PLC, where he was Publishing Director with responsibility for FHM.
- The Company is looking to raise between £2 million and £4 million, with an anticipated market capitalisation of over £13 million.
- Admission to AIM is expected to occur on or around 20 February 2019. The Company intends to complete its first acquisition immediately on admission.
James Carter, CEO, Digitalbox, said: “Our proposed admission to AIM will allow us to capitalise on the considerable opportunities we see to build a market-leading, mobile-first digital business through a buy and build strategy. Due to the success of Entertainment Daily, we have already created a platform through which we can drive traffic and advertising revenue, and to which we can add new titles to and quickly improve their performance. The combination of this platform and our experienced management team creates a compelling opportunity for investors as we grow.” polemos