Avanti Becomes Part Of Neo Group

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Late last week Avanti Screenmedia Group PLC (ASG) announced that it had raised a further UK PDS 240,000 (net of expenses) in order to provide further working capital for the Company. It did this by offering 17,636,363 new ordinary shares at a price of 1.375p per share to Neo Media Group SA (aka Neo Media or Neo Advertising).

Forget the intricacies of share subscription, previous convertible loan notes etc. because what this means is that, in no uncertain terms “from now on ASG will be part of the Neo Group”.

Christian Vaglio-Giors, Managing Director, Neo Advertising SA who we are lucky enough to speak with regularly told us exclusively “As you certainly know we have been in touch with some of the UK dominant players for more than 2 years now. We recently thoroughly re-analyzed the UK market and concluded that it was the right timing for Neo to enter it and ASG the right vehicle to do so”

He added “From now on ASG will be part of Neo Group, benefiting from its supply chain, its knowledge sharing programs and its sales leveraging power. With the help of Neo, ASG can certainly position itself as the key DOOH player in the UK”

The RNS issued as a matter of course to the UK’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is well worth a read below…

RNS Number : 9107B Avanti Screenmedia Group PLC 22 August 2008

22 August 2008

Avanti Screenmedia Group plc

(“Avanti” or the “Company”)

Subscription of new ordinary shares

Avanti, the AIM listed leading digital screen media specialist, announces today that Neo Media Group SA (“Neo Media”) has subscribed for 17,636,363 new ordinary shares (the “Subscription Shares”) at a price of 1.375p per share to raise a further £240,000 net of expenses (the “Subscription”). The Subscription has been undertaken to provide further working capital for the Company.

The Subscription Shares represent approximately 29.98 per cent. of the fully diluted share capital of the Company, as enlarged by the Subscription. The Subscription Shares will, when issued and fully
paid, rank equally in all respects with the existing ordinary shares.

It is expected that Admission will become effective and that trading in the Subscription Shares will commence on AIM at 8.00am on 29 August 2008. As a result of the Subscription the total issued share capital of the Company will increase to 58,822,436 ordinary shares.

This subscription follows the announcement of 18 July 2008 that Neo Media had subscribed for £300,000 by way of a convertible loan. As stated previously, Avanti will work with Neo Media to broaden the Company’s market penetration and product offering, and to provide Neo Media with an entry into the UK market.

Neo Media is headquartered in Switzerland and currently operates in eight European countries, and in Canada, focusing on providing Digital Out of Home (“DOOH”) solutions to shopping centres, hypermarkets, retailers and exhibition centres.

The Board considers that the Subscription is in the best interests of the Company and Shareholders as a whole.

The Company is in the process of finalising a number of new contracts and the Board anticipates that it will be in a position to give details of these contracts shortly.

Simon Rees, CEO of Avanti, commented,

“We are extremely pleased to have the support of Neo Media and we look forward to working closely with the company.”


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