(RAM.L) RAM Investment Group PLC [1] has acquired the assets of ASG Media we believe. Whlst we reckon that the administrators could have got GBP 1 Million plus for said assets if they had not hurried through the sale [2] our sources tell us that RAM likely picked up the business for several hundred thousand pounds plus a little bit of debt and the salaries of half of the ASG Media employees who were kept on.
It’s unlikely that any of the remaining ASG Media senior executives; Gary Truman or Jamie Ball will have stayed with the (new) business. Gary will probably be off polishing his relatively new Porsche and updating his Facebook profile [3] and Jamie will have no trouble finding a job quickly in London.
Why do we think that the assets could have been sold for north of GBP 1 Million? Well ASG Media had almost GBP 18 million pounds worth of tax losses on their books which would have had an approximate GBP 5 million cash value. That’s like buying a ten pound note for three quid!
RAM Investment Group are the folks who bought TrainFx from VMG [4].
Timothy Baldwin, executive chairman most probably did most of the dealings as he did with the TrainFX purchase but interestingly providing advice, guidance and support for the transaction was David de Costa.
David and his partner Hanna Sebright [5] were the brains behind Electonic Health Media, which of course was sold to Amscreen when it ran into financial trouble [6].
David would have had dealings with ASG Media (nee Avanti Screenmedia) back then as ASG were touted as a media sales partner for the fledging Doctor’s surgery network AND David has a good knowledge of the UK Shopping Mall sector having 8 or 9 of them as customers with another of his digital / wayfinding / communication type businesses [7] (whilst it is under the radar of many people it is actually quite successful).
Anyway, whilst it is probably not on the cards that David (and his company) will end up running the business for the RAM Investment Group we do think Timothy Baldwin and co. will find someone else to manage it for them.
All shopping mall contracts became null and void when ASG Media went into administration and we figure that the Mall Corporation (ASG’s biggest customer) will now just revert to Clear Channel who own the 6-sheet advertising rights (and err, Clear Channel deal with VMG Global [8]).
What chance VMG Global or even Neo Media Group then managing it on their behalf?
Stranger things have happened!
If ASG Media’s SPAR Network has stayed intact then the RAM folks could do worse than keep abc Media on selling it for them. [9]