After the success of its capital increase, the gross revenues from which amounted to €26.74 million, Hi-Media announces the completion of its purchase from Gameloft of 88% of the capital of the company Odyssée Interactive, editor of the jeuxvideo.com site. This transaction was carried out for the amount of €22.87 million paid in cash, in compliance with the announcement made at the time of the signing of the agreement in principle regarding this operation.
An accretive acquisition
Odyssée Interactive is expecting sales of €3.2 million, with €1.8 million of operating income in 2006.
Odyssée Interactive will be consolidated within Hi-Media as of June 2006. The forecasted operating income of the Group before the integration of Odyssée Interactive (between 10 and 12% of the sales figure, i.e. between €7 million and €8.4 million) will thus be increased of about €0.9 million (half of the estimated operating result of Odyssée Interactive). In 2006, the group is therefore expecting to generate sales in excess of €70 million, for an operating income between €7.9 million and €9.3 million.
In pro forma accounts after the integration of Odyssée Interactive, the group’s operating income should increase from 21 to 25%, amounting to between 12% and 14% of the sales figure (i.e. between €8.8 million and €10.2 million). Compared with the issue of 14.79% of new shares in order to finance the acquisition, the operation is particularly accretive in financial terms.
An important step in the company’s development
With Jeuxvideo.com, which brings together approximately 1.8 million individual visitors each month and which has imposed itself as the undisputed leader in the world of video games, Hi Media is confirming its positioning as a Media and Services group.
Hi-Media Services includes all audience optimisation and monetization activities: advertising network, direct marketing and micro-payments, and it is the French and European leader in these domains.
Hi-Media Publishing currently includes jeuxvideo.com, the site actustar.com (French leader in celebrity news) and blogorama.fr (thematic blog platform). With the sites, Hi‑Media Publishing reaches between 2 and 2.5 million individual visitors each month. The group wishes to quickly develop Hi-Media Publishing into one of the leading vendors on the French Internet, and then to duplicate this model abroad.
The company will publish its sales figure on 24 July 2006.
