EBTM into the black

On-line ‘music-inspired’ fashion retailer EBTM confirms it expects its first annual pre-tax profit for the year to last month.

The London-based company, which wholesales on the internet, paid £4.75 million in cash and shares last June for the ‘complementary’ Lowlife clothing and accessories brand. This, together with another acquisition the following month, Atticus, now provides most of the turnover for EBTM, which reports ‘encouraging signs’ from Atticus licensees in North America and says buying Atticus saved it £400,000 in royalties.

In an upbeat trading statement, chief executive Richard Breeden says the company, which lost £661,570 in the year to April 2007 on £1.3 million turnover, will ‘report a maiden full-year profit before tax’ for 2007/08. He adds that EBTM, which raised £5.25 million at 4.75p at the time of the Lowlife takeover, has ‘successfully addressed’ the problem of low conversion rates to its new e-commerce platform that was causing concern in January and restored them to ‘historic levels’, though with ‘room for significant further improvement’.

AIM-quoted EBTM, which recruited ex-Sanctuary Music financial planning chief Ian Collins as finance director last month, saw its shares slump from 6.75p in 2006 to 2p last January. Now 3p, valuing the company at £7.5 million, they could repay a brave long-term punt.

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