Entertainment Rights Share Discussion Threads

[superglide] 22/2/2008 20:16

46maxon - dont mind if price right, you got a figure which you think might suggest that in mind?

[superglide] 22/2/2008 20:15

svendid i mean

[superglide] 22/2/2008 20:14

anyone else see the cfd long at 11.875 for 3,750,000 shares? disclosed today

[svendid] 22/2/2008 18:50

An MBO is not out of the question.....
If half the world can bid...why cant they?

They would need a solid capital raiser behind them....
someone like David johnson maybe....???

[46maxon] 22/2/2008 18:01

Do you ever get the feeling about being sold down river. Found the above on google finance.

[theshareguru] 22/2/2008 16:48

looks good

[scrapman] 22/2/2008 13:09

any milage in trevor hemmings and nick park getting together , both lancastrians ?? ,

highley speculative ,

but may be interesting to see some of the ERT charchters given the NP treatment ??

[fludde] 22/2/2008 10:25

Thanks Torq.

You would think news of competing bids would drive more activity than we have seen today.

[torquayturk] 22/2/2008 08:44

The Mail-
Entertainment Rights,the owner of rights to Basil Brush, Postman Pat and Rupert the Bear, jumped 1p to 12p on hefty turnover of 13m.
Word is broker Altium Securities sold a large lump of stock owned by fund manager Rathbones to leisure magnate Trevor Hemmings, which takes his shareholding to around 20pc.
ERT is in takeover talks with Saban Capital, the investment vehicle of Israeli media entrepreneur Haim Saban, and Chorion. Hemmings is believed to be lining up a bid of his own.

Financial Times-
Postman Pat owner delivers
By Robert Orr and Neil Hume
Published: February 22 2008
Entertainment Rights , the children's media group that is in takeover talks, moved higher in heavy volumes of more than 13m shares.
A host of suitors have been linked with a bid for the owner of Basil Brush and Postman Pat, including Chorion and Apax Partners, which bought HIT Entertainment in 2005.
Last month, Ashby Manor, a vehicle controlled by Blackpool tower owner Trevor Hemmings, declared a raised holding of 17.1 per cent.
Entertainment Rights closed up 9.1 per cent at 12p

[wodahsnoom] 21/2/2008 16:57

20p would be daylight robbery but if a deal is on the way I fear at current levels we'd be lucky to get 18p

[john hampton] 21/2/2008 12:39

Nice buys going through this morning, all heating up, keep in there guys could be some big moves up soon.

[petepostman] 21/2/2008 11:32

Perhaps the Times mentioned a 20p bid because their Tempus column rated them as a buy last autumn at, guess what? Yes,20p..!

[wodahsnoom] 20/2/2008 20:16

At the end of the day Ashby Manor and the Directors can block any takeover with a combined stake of 20%+. Why do you think he bought the 20ml shares recently. Trevor Hemmings is in since 1999 and is flush with cash from the S&N takeover so he can take a longer view than most. Even if 2009 forecast was 20ml profit @ a P/E of say 13 it eventually implies 35p. Fundamentals are ok with Co though they need to translate more to the bottom line - getting rid of Heap would be a start

[torquayturk] 20/2/2008 09:04

Och-Ziff the US based private equity firm. True or accurate, who knows? I wouldn't believe too much that's printed as the 'real deal' will be kept very close to chests. ERT would be worth more to iii or Apax due to the merger savings ie get rid of management team and duplicate offices etc.
Also don't forget that when Chorion was taken private at £110m, ERT had made a cheeky bid at £43m less than a year earlier.

[superglide] 20/2/2008 08:16

tt - yes someone "walked away" from deal when 20p was reputed to be asked for by ert, cannot remember who? was private equity firm wasn't it?

[torquayturk] 19/2/2008 16:17

Yes Humph, I've got that uncomfortable feeling also that the wheel has come off Heap's barrow and that this is worse than we know. I think the story will unfold before the 2007 results are due in about a months time.
When Hemmings bought half of Blackpool seafront from First Leisure he waited for the beauty parade of potential bidders to have a good sniff and make their bids then came in at the death and trumpted them with a knockout cash bid. I wonder if he fancies ( with Craig in charge) a £30m plus cash generating business in his portfolio? On the other hand, Chorion have reportedly made doubtful comments about the appeal of ERT's portfolio of characters, so obviously they must be very interested!
It would be nice to see the share price ease(manipulate)its way back up to the high teens. I would then have some confidence in my earlier post.
Fingers crossed. TT

[indian3] 19/2/2008 16:11

i think 20p is what they're holding out for

[fludde] 19/2/2008 16:04

Sadly Humph you may well be right.

[humphbumph] 19/2/2008 15:20

I agree. However I believe there is more going on here than meets the eye. I believe we would be lucky to get more than c.15p. I hope I'm wrong.

[indian3] 19/2/2008 15:06

torquay
great analysis, you're a top dog, very impressive

[torquayturk] 19/2/2008 13:21

20p has been mentioned in one article.
Recent purchases in the sector are worth looking at;
1- ERT purchase of Classic Media for £107m was 10 times EBITDA
2- Apax purchase of Hit Entertainment for £490m (EBITDA for the six months to 31st Jan 2005- just before the purchase was £23.3m- full year figure not available but say £35m = 14 times)
3- iii purchase of Chorion for £110m was 19.3 times EBITDA

ERT's EBITDA for 2007 is expected to be £31m and £38.5m for 2008. So even on the lowest multiple of 10x 20p looks far too cheap.
Interesting point- SVG sold their shareholding to iii when they bought Chorion and its them who have been buying over recent weeks.
One final point, Trevor Hemmings shareholding (Ashby Manor) was originally priced at 25p (in late 1999)and he has topped up at various points for placings etc at up to 29p. Even though he bought a few 'cheap' shares the other week at 8p, the amount was no where near enough to seriously reduce his average price.
For what its worth, if there is a serious buyer out there and ERT are not hiding a horror story from us shareholders, I think the sums might work as follows;
EBITDA say £31m x10= £310m minus borrowing of £100m = £210m = 29/30p per share.
Anything less and we will have been robbed.

[underhill2] 19/2/2008 12:06

At what realistic price do you expect the bid price to be ?
which will be accepted by the company ?

[john hampton] 18/2/2008 15:00

Nothing much doing here yet, just a bit of weeding out, waiting patiently for the bid.