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[cardiffian] 07/8/2010 12:33

'The Winning Season' gets limited release in the US (Sep 3).

Article includes a trailer:

[cardiffian] 06/8/2010 18:42

Just a few items:

1. 'I am Slave' is scheduled for showing on C4 sometime this month. C4 as co-something or other and have rights to first broadcast. At least I'm presuming the production is one and the same.

..."The story of one domestic worker, Mende Nazer, has inspired a Channel 4 drama, which will be shown this month. I Am Slave follows Malia, a young girl trafficked from Sudan to the UK, where her rich employers refuse to allow her to leave the house and pay her nothing. Desperate to escape, she has to put her trust in a passing stranger to help her get away."...



2. Sean Bean's wife, who was supposed to appear in 'Age of Heroes' alongside Bean has filed for divorce. I figure Bean's filmed the majority, if not all, of his role in the film, so I don't think there's likely to be a production hiccup because of him but whether his wife remains in the film seems open to doubt...I guess it will come down to professionalism, perhaps !



3. Although we are ex Aus/NZ with 'Matching Jack'. It gets a special advance screening in Aus on Aug 16th.



4. A couple of recent articles re 'Heartland' in the US.

This is why I feel the US deal was important and warranted an RNS.


...'It has been picked up in Australia, South America, South Africa and throughout Europe. But conquering the U.S. market is generally considered the holy grail for television.

"The reality is, if you're successful in the U.S. then the rest of the world is the easier part to do," says Wayne Lepoff, president of the U.S.-based distributor Genesis TV and Film.'...



also



NB. 'Steven and Chris' being part of the CBC library is also represented by Fireworks. It possibly includes any ongoing US deal although I'm not certain.

5. 'Valemont - Premieres This Weekend On MTV' more precisely mtv.co.nz

[diesel] 05/8/2010 09:38

Cardif...thanks for your constant updates...
on another note, heard someone on breakfast tv this morning talking about ufo's and how alien beings were amonst us, they will be trying to convince us that CFL has just turned blue!

[cardiffian] 04/8/2010 18:04

I've finally found the 5 mins to watch this recent interview with Greg Phillips.

[polygram] 03/8/2010 20:10

Good spot cardiffian. Looks a major deal. Think the one I spotted related to the USA forces network so this is far bigger. As you rightly say surely there should have been or should be an rns about this.

[djderry] 03/8/2010 19:40

Thanks for bringing this news to the thread cardiffian.

[cardiffian] 03/8/2010 11:14

Just an additional snippet from c21media.

"Produced by Seven24 Films and Dynamo Films, the series has previously been sold by Fireworks to the UK's Channel 4, among others. Australia's ABC2, Austria's ORF1 and YLE2 of Finland have also broadcast the show."

[cardiffian] 30/7/2010 19:27

"Dusting off Broomfield's docs"

[flat white] 29/7/2010 10:47

The problem with the numbers above is that the market has no confidence that the library is worth even $60m. They might just about get $25m if they HAD to sell it. If Schmidt's on £300k it's a rip off

[diesel] 25/7/2010 20:11

fft, interesting post, don't forget that they also have a 20% stake in Phase 4, and other interests like Collins av..
I totally sympathise with sscrabbles view on salaries, I think Schmidt is on over £300kwhich may have been almost acceptable when the company was worth 20x present value, I guess salaries never go backwards we can only hope that again there will be no bonuses.
The future...well I think if we assume that the company is now stable and can slowly reduce debt and end the year flat or slight profit then I think this is way undervalued, but who is going to buy into this present story?
The management are hardly selling a rosy short/medium term, and the debt and pref shareholders weigh heavily. The strategy is probably right but the lack of delivery is disappointing. Collins av esp. seems to have started with a bit of a damp squid.
I'm still holding what I have left but my fear over the short term is either some sneaky management buyout or that any improvement will be seen by long suffering investors as an opportunity to jump ship so wiping out any gain.

[sscrabble] 25/7/2010 12:14

I agree with the figures, in fact they seem quite conservative --- but as I keep saying - I think the management are in this for big salaries and lifestyle - if they have a choice between selling off the company in bits, or selling out for nil and keeping their jobs - they will take the second option -- and I do not think there is a damn thing we can do about it.

[fft] 25/7/2010 09:26

I am trying to get a handle on how much CFL is worth and how this might change going forward. I am not looking at EPS here, but the net debt situation and the preference shareholders. The numbers below are all from the latest accounts.

The library is valued at $71m. I am going to assume a 15% haircut, and give it a sale value of $60m. I am also assuming that it will also be worth $60m next year (existing library worth less, but new additions to the library keep the value the same as now).

The loan was raised in dollars, so to keep exchange rates out of it, we will use the $ amount of $32m outstanding. Last year the amount outstanding was $35m, so $3m was repaid during the year. Lets assume the company can also repay $3m this year as well.

Preference shares. There are 35m of those, and they can demand repayment at 26p per share (or 9.4m GBP) which they all did last year. This amount is now a liability in the accounts.

Net Asset value of the company is -4.7m GBP (incl the preference shares 9.4m and the loan at 20.3m). However, i think we should also deduct 18.6m GBP goodwill and intangibles from the net assets as the premium paid for various businesses over time has not been good for CFL and appears worthless.

This gives us a NAV of -23.3m GBP

The Library value is $60m (40m GBP), which would imply a breakup value of the business of 16-17m GBP. With 175m shares that would be a payout of 8p+ (lets assume some breakup/selling costs).

Given the disparity in valuations, i must have missed something here. Assuming the company can write off another 2m of the loan this year, the NAV would be down to -21.3m and the breakup value would rise to 18-19m GBP with another 1p+ on the payout per share.

One caveat is that the loan is due in 2013. I suppose the big question is whether CFL can arrange further financing going forward. However, given the covenants have never been broken and there is a large asset backing it does not seem unreasonable to assume the loan will be renewed (last time it cost 888,000 to arrange - nice for someone !).

All comments welcome !

[cardiffian] 24/7/2010 17:17

Just a bit of light reading re 'Republic of Doyle'.

[cardiffian] 24/7/2010 08:30

A 1m 43s teaser trailer of 'Ironclad' as part of the 11 min. segment shown at Comic-con last night.

When I first saw the trailer to 'The Commitments' a few years back, I wasn't that impressed. When I saw the actual film in it's entirety, I was impressed. I'm hoping it will be the same with 'Ironclad'.

[cardiffian] 23/7/2010 19:38

'Welcome to the Riley's' heads for Deauville Film Fest, Sept. 3-12



..."On the other hand, film pundits are saying that Stewart might just get nominated for an Oscar for her role of a troubled teenage prostitute in 'Welcome to the Rileys'."...



and here's the trailer if you haven't already seen it:

[flat white] 22/7/2010 21:06

I cannot understand how this management is still in situ. They have completely destroyed shareholder value and clearly have no idea how to manage an independent film and tv company. They have raised over £25m from shareholders, made crazy, ego-fuelled acquisitions which they have had to unravel and are still £20m in debt. I agree with the stratgy of realising the value in the library...if it's worth a conservative $71m, why dont they sell half of it? The board should fall on their swords and bring in a management who can manage in this environment.

[cardiffian] 22/7/2010 20:04

The results came out a week earlier than I had expected and although they eked out a small profit, it was less than I was hoping for and based on that, the current price will probably remain exactly where it is.

Yes they did also reduce debt slightly but the net liabilities still hang there and I don't like seeing it. All in all, another set of disappointing results full of the now regular 'jam tomorrow' statements although the Chairman's statement did seem fuller than usual.

For that reason I closed out my T20 early with the expectation that I wouldn't be the only one disappointed. Reluctantly, I still hold and will hold as long as I can, my core holding. As someone pointed out earlier, it's illogical to sell now at this ludicrous price, especially if one's average is far higher.

If they don't start issuing statements directly to the market re deals, the share price is never going to budge. I don't think it's going to matter much how trivial the announcements are anymore as long as there are announcements.

IMO.

The following article pretty much sums up my thoughts:

[diesel] 22/7/2010 18:50

Looks to me that the Library, is worth about the same as the debt and pref shareholders dues. Therefore the value of the company is on the added value they can bring.
While not inamoured with the performance of CFL or the management pay structured, the results do show that progress has been made to stop the losses and show a small profit, plus the paying down of some of the debt. If they can reduce the debt further this will not onl increase the value of the company but improve profits from reduced interest charges, this has to be their top priority. I am not sure where the share price should be at present , I would have expected a slightly better response to the raw numbers, but the managemet statements gave no sign of optimism to future earnings, so unlikely to attract too many new investors.

[latics2] 22/7/2010 16:13

Not convinced that the "library" is worth anything near estimated value. willing to hear arguments for.

[sscrabble] 22/7/2010 15:04

So - they are crippled by debt - the library is valued at a 'conservative' $71m - sell off some of the library , and pay off the debt.

If you had a car dealership , and had 7100 cars valued at £71 million , and a £21m debt - you would , or could , reduce your stockholding to 5000 cars and pay off the debt - it would affect the business, not cripple it , but solve any problems and no more interest payments. You could just sell 1000 , or 500 ---- just do SOMETHING to solve the debt problem.

Why is the value of the library not being exploited properly. Any decent management would be using their assets for the benefit of the business and the shareholders - I am convinced the management here are just funding their own jet-set lifestyles, and cannot understand why major shareholders are not kicking ass. They have published their results, and that will be the last shareholders hear from them for the next twelve months (unless you follow their lives on the celebrity bashes)

[watchout2] 22/7/2010 14:20

Bonio10000.

It was special, in it's uptrend it went from 2p to almost 30p !

What should we do, just sit there and not take profits :-))

It's a shame what has happened since, those results look pretty good,
of course they are pinned by debt, drop the debt and then it gets re-rated !

[fft] 22/7/2010 14:13

dont forget the preference shareholders. They need to be paid off first, or they could come to a deal that would dilute the rest of us out of existence.

[pimp] 22/7/2010 12:29

People understandably selling out as this is now dead money for the next 2 years. Management are making zero effort to support the share price and to see another year or two of constant drip erosion if now too much. I fully understand but it is not worth me or (most of us) selling out now. A share price of 25p+, as it was , seems a miracle away - starting with a change in the managements attitude to share holders and their attitude to valuation of their own company. They come across as not bothering what the market thinks of the company but we all know the higher the share price the better the negotiating power you have.It makes you wonder what is the hidden agenda here. This company is better dissolved and the assests distributed.I suspect we will currently all get alot more than what is on offer now. Saying that however i think we have turned the corner . We will prbably tread water for the next 2 results and then following that we will show increased performance. There is the outside chance we may get taken over of course. Whatever, i think we are all stuck with this company for the forseeable future. Come back Peacearch - all is forgiven. !