Avanti fixes new funding

18/07/2008 Robert Tyerman

Swiss group Neo Media has subscribed for £300,000 of convertible loans in bombed out digital screen media concern Avanti Screenmedia.

Geneva-based Neo Media, like Avanti a specialist in ‘digital out-of-home solutions’, has subscribed for three-quarters of the £400,000 of convertibles issued by loss-making Avanti , which on conversion would give the Swiss company a 42.1 per cent holding. Simon Rees, brought in from WPP last year as chief executive officer of ailing Avanti, says, ‘We see this alignment as the start of further consolidation of the digital “out-of-home” sector, both locally and internationally.’

AIM-quoted Avanti, which lost £5.6 million (plus another £25 million on disposals) in the year to June 2007 and a further £2.5 million in the six months to December, has already raised several tranches of funding as it strives to put its house in order. Last November, the London-based company raised £987,000 in shares and convertibles at 7p and in December it tapped the market for another £150,000 at the same price.

That must have given investors pain as the shares, which were floated in 2004 at 130p and hit 361p two years later, slid further to a barely visible 1p yesterday. They have now bounced to 3.62p, valuing the company at £1.5 million, where they are a high-risk recovery punt.

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