Companies: CCT   

The Character Group has just entered into a joint venture agreement with Copyright Promotions, a brands licensing agency. Under the terms of the deal a new venture, Character Promotions Ltd, will be created to develop leisure products utilising the resources of both companies. According to finance director Kiran Shah, the venture will build a pan-European merchandising programme for 'Euro 2000' for which Copyright Promotions is the exclusive licensing agency. Character's contribution will be in the design, sourcing and distribution of the products. The latest results from Character, for the interim period to February, highlight the continuing progress of the business. Turnover upped to £49m (£38.5m) and pre-tax profits came in at £5.02m (£4.53m last time). EPS was improved to 16.7p (15.5p) and house brokers Collins Stewart expect earnings for the full year to August to show a 22% inprovement to 31.5p. This would suggest that the 368p shares are somewhat undervalued, trading off a forward p/e of 11.2 against a sector average of 31.7.