Fund Takes 5% of Photon

Embattled Photon Group - which owns MR agencies The Leading Edge and Jigsaw Research - has received a vote of confidence of a kind, investment fund Intelligent Investor buying five percent of its depressed shares.

Intelligent Investor Funds Pty - which is linked to the Intelligent Investor publication - informed the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) this week that since June 24th it has bought just over 80 million shares or 5.22% of the company.

Shares - which three years ago stood at around six dollars - tumbled to around a dollar after it was revealed last year that the group was struggling to pay the $AUD 176m worth of earn-out payments due to the owners of several agencies it had acquired. By September, the company had completed a recapitalisation through the issue of $103m worth of new shares, and began simplifying its management and company structure under new CEO Jeremy Phillips.

After the recap, shares reopened at around 10 cents. The price reached a low of 2.6c on Tuesday and now stands at 3.7c, giving the group a market capitalisation of just under $48m.

In its latest results in May, Photon reported a 6% decline in revenue to $AUD 289.4m for the 10 months to April 2011, compared with last year's 4% drop.

Within the group, the fortunes of individual companies are more mixed. Insights agency The Leading Edge recently announced a number of senior hires and its CEO Andy Bateman said it was 'on a strong path to growth'.

Thanks to www.mumbrella.com.au for some of the above.

Web sites are at www.photongroup.com , www.theleadingedge.com and www.jigsawresearch.com.au .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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