Zoo Digital wins US backing

02/07/2010 Robert Tyerman

New York-headquartered Multi Packaging Solutions (MPS) is to pay £859,456 for 9.1 per cent of AIM-quoted entertainment software and services provider Zoo Digital, with warrants to double that stake as part of a new strategic relationship between the two companies. MPS subsidiary John Henry Holdings is subscribing for Zoo shares at
40p for its initial holding and for warrants to subscribe for up to the same number again at 50p.

Sheffield and California-based Zoo, steered by entrepreneurial chief executive officer Stuart Green, says it has developed a ‘market-leading proposition’ for the production of printed materials in the entertainment industry and now maintains that its proprietary software could have ‘complementary applications in other sectors’. Green declares that the proposed partnership with MPS ‘provides Zoo with a no-risk way to enter new markets outside entertainment’.

Zoo, a former video games flop before embarking on entertainment software, increased turnover 36.3 per cent to $15 million (£10 million) in the year to March and turned a $745,000 operating loss into an $821,000 profit before exceptional impairment charges, exchange losses and other finance costs turned that into an $868,000 pre-tax loss. The company ended March with $1.23 million cash.

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