Sponsored by
Endless in magazine deal
David Parkin Business Editor YORKSHIRE buyout firm Endless has rescued the special interest magazine business of collapsed publishing group Highbury House Communications.
Endless, a Leeds-based 100m buyout and turnaround fund launched at the end of last year by former Ernst & Young insolvency specialist Garry Wilson, has paid an undisclosed seven-figure sum for a clutch of the UK's oldest hobby titles and provided working capital for future expansion.
Yorkshire-based publishing entrepreneur Peter Harkness, previously chairman of Hull-based IT research firm the Butler Group, assisted Endless with the transaction.
Highbury House, the magazine publisher in which former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie owned a 20 per cent stake, went into administration last week with debts of around 40m.
Since then SMD Publishing bought lads' magazine Front, film title HotDog and DVD World and its computer magazines were sold to Imagine Publishing for an estimated 7m.
Highbury announced earlier this month that its 30 gaming, technology, entertainment and special-interest titles would be put up for sale after talks with its lenders, Royal Bank of Scotland and Allied Irish Bank, collapsed.
Mr MacKenzie spent about 1.5m on his stake in the company, becoming chairman and chief executive.
But last month he admitted he had been "defeated" by debts of 29.5m and quit Highbury House.
The business bought by Endless includes 45 staff based in Orpington, Kent, and has been renamed Encanta Media and publishes titles including The Woodworker, Practical Wood-worker, Model Boats, Gardens Monthly, Popular Patchwork, Model Engineering, Military Modelling and Radio Controlled Modelling and Electronics.
The division had a turnover of around 6m before Highbury's collapse – and was profitable.
Endless completed the transaction within 14 days of its first contact with the accountants who were assisting Highbury's board prior to the group's demise.
Mr Wilson said: "We are delighted to have brought together the funding to secure the future of this quality, established business."
Mr Harkness said: "The investment by Endless helps secure the future of a business that publishes some of the UK's oldest and best-loved specialist consumer magazines.
"A key component of the deal was the speed with which Endless could act, as well as the professionalism of its advisory team."
david.parkin@ypn.co.uk
Simply enchanting...
HIGHBURY House's new name Encanta Media wasn't created by an expensive brand consultancy but a 13-year-old Yorkshire schoolgirl.
While working on the deal, media entrepreneur Peter Harkness realised he would have to produce a new name so he tasked his partner's three children to come up with a name. Hattie, 13, thought of Encanta, which has its roots in the Spanish word for enchanted.
"It's the sort of thing some big companies might pay a brand consultancy millions of pounds for," said Mr Harkness, who is married to Sarah Grune-wald, former Andersen partner and a director of Leeds-based headhunter Directorbank.
Hattie is a pupil at Wakefield Girls' High School and loves languages.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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