11/04/2007
Adrian Moss, founder of online marketing intermediary Deal Group Media (DGM), has just sold his house in order to invest £250,000 into the company, despite heavy losses last year.
Fiery Moss floated minnow DGM in 2000 and saw it grow to almost £100 million in 2005, before the shares tumbled over a major customer loss. He was then persuaded to hand over the controls and focus instead on overseas business, before leaving last June ‘for strategic reasons’.
Now Moss is back in the driving seat, re-appointed as chief executive in December in time to issue a £2.2m operating loss for the year ending that month. The majority of this deficit was made up of a £1.8m technology investment, of which £700,000 is non-recurring.
DGM provides search engine and affiliate marketing services for advertisers, and sells advertising on behalf of a network of media owners. A cut-throat market in the UK for such services has been responsible for much of the company’s woes, leading Moss to slash costs. Of its triple-play offering, he adds that DGM is one of the only companies offering ‘a multi-channel trading environment’ and enthuses about new technology offerings in the pipeline.
However, his real fervour is reserved for the Asia Pacific region, ‘where the big opportunity is’. The move is client-led and Moss explains that DGM’s experience should see it thrive in a ‘less complicated, early-stage’ market, with a triple offering to sell from day one. To accelerate growth in a region that increased threefold last year, £1m is being poured into a new base in Singapore and an imminent Indian launch.
Despite increased competition, this is still a fast-growing market and the group was marginally EBITDA-positive in the second half. House broker Evolution foresees a small loss this year and a £1m pre-tax profit in 2008. Not for widows or orphans, but a speculative punt nonetheless.
| Market cap: | £13.42m |
| PE Forecast: | n/a |
| Share price: | 3.5p |
| AIM | £4.1m |
0.90p
|
0.00p
|
|
| Other company articles: |
| 02/10/2008 |
| 24/04/2008 |
| 01/05/2007 |
| 12/04/2007 |
| 11/04/2007 |
Manage Your Finances
Money, tax and benefits : your official guide.
