UBC purchases leading radio and content producer Above The Title for an initial cash consideration of £85,000 and further Deferred Consideration
UBC, the content and radio services business, is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of the business and assets of Above The Title Productions Limited (“Above The Title”), a leading producer of content for a range of broadcasters including the BBC.
Above The Title owns a number of formats and rights including radio and audio dramatisation rights to Douglas Adams’ classic ‘Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy’ books. Above The Title’s recent highlights for BBC radio include ‘Unreliable Evidence’ presented by Clive Anderson for Radio 4, “On the Blog” for Radio 2 and ‘The Christian O'Connell Solution’ for 5 Live.
In unaudited draft accounts for the year ended 30 September 2009, Above The Title had a turnover of £772,000 and produced a gross profit of £260,000. As at 30 September 2009 Above The Title had net assets of £43,000.
UBC, which was last week named ‘independent radio production company of the year’, plans to operate the business separately from its other production companies but will take advantage of synergies in areas such as business infrastructure and will use its increased market share to grow this sector as a whole.
The purchase is being satisfied by an initial cash consideration of £85,000 and a deferred earn out based on the operating profit generated by the acquired business in the 24 full months immediately following completion.
The earnout is to be satisfied by settlement in a mixture of cash and shares which based on the current share price would lead to a maximum earnout of £1,000,000 which will become payable if an operating profit of £333,333 is achieved.
Simon Cole, Chief Executive of UBC commented:
“Above The Title represents a very complementary addition to our growing stable of production companies and is an important step in our strategy of consolidating the content production marketplace. The business’ current production order book from the BBC and other content publishers is very strong.”
