ADVFN Logo

We could not find any results for:
Make sure your spelling is correct or try broadening your search.

Trending Now

Toplists

It looks like you aren't logged in.
Click the button below to log in and view your recent history.

Hot Features

Registration Strip Icon for alerts Register for real-time alerts, custom portfolio, and market movers

An EPIC Investment?

Share Forum

Share On Facebook
Creator rambutan2 Created 9 Jun 2004 Posts 15 Last Post 19 years ago
Free Annual Reports Add Favourite|E-mail Alert|Related Threads

Stock Charts

Long Term Stock Chart

No news found


http://www.epicip.com/go/SpecialInvestments/SpecialInvestmentsProducts_18.html

havent made my mind up on this one, its certainly an interesting vehicle, and cheap at the mo, but not been a happy experience for shareholders so far and until it comes out with a good story i expect it will remain in the dumps...

The Daily Telegraph – 23 December 2002
THE Jatania brothers, Britain's third-richest Asians who own consumer brands that range from Harmony hairspray to Lipsyl lip balm, are to float a venture on the London Stock Exchange for the first time.
 
Lornamead Group, the personal-hygiene and homecare brands company owned by Uganda-born Indians Mike, George, Vin and Danny Jatania, has been trading since 1978, building up a private business thought to be valued at more than £500m.
 
Over the past four years, it has followed a strategy of snapping up unwanted consumer brands from multinationals such as Unilever, Bristol Myers-Squibb and Sara Lee.
 
Brands it has bought include Amplex breath freshener, Stergene fabric detergent and Harmony, reponsible for the advertising slogan: "Is she or isn't she".
 
Now, it is linking up with the London-quoted Equity Partnership Investment Company (EPIC) to launch a specialist investment fund that aims to buy more brands and invest in some of Lornamead's existing products.
 
EPIC Brand Investments (EBI), a joint venture between Lornamead and EPIC Investment partners, part of EPIC, aims to raise £50m in a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market.
 
The company, incorporated in the Isle of Man, is being brought to market by brokers Collins Stewart and plans to begin trading on December 31.
 
It marks the first stock market involvement by the Jatania brothers, who keep a low profile and live with their families in a London apartment block.
 
They were ranked third in this year's Asian Xpress Rich List, the annual catalogue of Britain's 275 wealthiest Asians.
 
Their main asset is Lornamead, headquartered in Dubai with offices in London, Toronto, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos and Dublin, but the brothers have a tongue-in-cheek motto - Let dynasty not become Dallas - to warn them against getting into family feuds.
 
The new company will be chaired by Mike Jatania, 37, Lornamead chief executive and the youngest of the brothers.
 
He said: "There is a huge opportunity to buy brands at a reasonable price because many multinationals have a stated policy to slim down and focus on selected brands.
 
"It has created a unique opportunity to acquire brands in this sector that are local jewels.
 
"Some of them are domestic market leaders but they are not global. We think this is a window that is going to be open for two or three years.
 
"We have made ten acquisitions from multinationals. We call them corporate orphans because they have not received tender loving care as they are too small for the majors to focus on.
 
"We ensure that the products are enhanced to bring them up to date and we give them a facelift to make their products contemporary."
 
Lornamead will make £25m available for brand purchases by EPIC Brand Investments, which aims to gear up and have initial firepower of £150m for acquisitions. It believes it could fund acquisitions of £300m - £500m in the medium term.
 
EBI will have the right to buy up to 50pc of any brand acquisitions by Lornamead and invest in any of Lornamead's current brands, based on an independent valuation by a major accounting firm.
 
Jo Welman, chief executive of the Equity Partnership, said: "There are a number of brands in the Lornamead portfolio that we would be keen to buy."

Financial Times – 30 December 2002
Aim is set to end the year on a high note tomorrow with the completion of its second biggest fund raising of 2002.
 
EPIC Brand Investments, which specialises in exploiting brands unwanted by multinationals, has raised £50m through a placing at 100p a share.
 
The amount raised is second only to the £125m raised in June by PRI Group, the new insurer created to focus on the professional liability market. EPIC's flotation is the 56th on Aim this year, and will lift the average amount raised from £6m to about £7m.
 
EPIC will act as an off-shore investor in conjunction with Lornamead, the home and personal care group owned by the Jatania family. Mike Jatania, one of the UK's wealthiest Asian businessmen, will be non-executive chairman.
 
Lornamead is putting up another £25m for investment in what Jo Wellman, EPIC's chief executive, described as "orphan brands". Mr Wellman also said that banks were keen to match the total £75m available for investment, giving the venture an effective £150m to spend.
 
EPIC, advised by Collins Stewart, will target small- to medium-sized brands with an enterprise value of between £5m and £50m. It also has the right to acquire up to 50 per cent of any brand acquisitions by Lornamead and to invest in Lornamead's existing portfolio.
 
Among the well-known UK brands owned by Lornamead are Harmony haircare and Stergene fabric detergent, both bought from Unilever. It also owns Amplex, the breath freshener, acquired from Sara Lee, and Ingram, the shaving cream, acquired Bristol-Myers Squibb.
 
Mr Wellman said EPIC had already identified its first acquisition, a tooth whitening product with sales of $25m (£16m), focused mainly in North America.
 
It would treat its brands in one of three ways - by investing and stretching the brand, say by adding flavours to Amplex; by milking an established niche product for cash; or by building up a product to such an extent that it could be sold on to a trade buyer, possibly a multinational.