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From: Dale
ArtDate: 26 March 2001
Section: (FLEET COMMS NEWS RELEASES)
Remote Name: 62.172.82.212
Date: 01/04/01
Time: 14:04
26th March 2001
News Item
MARKETING INNOVATORS REAL AFFINITY FLOATS ON AIM
Marketing and communications specialist, Real Affinity, has raised £1,183,000 in a float on AIM today through a placing of 14,787,500 Ordinary 8p shares. This gives the group a market cap of £4,236,000. The bulk of the money raised will be used to buy CKBT, the advertising and marketing agency. The shares opened at 9p in early trading.
Real Affinity, through its subsidiary RP & F, derives its income from marketing consultancy and the provision of direct marketing strategies, including new media campaigns. Its Blue Chip European client base includes JMC Holidays and Parcelforce Worldwide.
CKBT provides a wide range of solutions including brand development, direct marketing, sales promotion and customer relationship management. It, too, has a Blue Chip client base, including PPP Healthcare and Procter & Gamble. In 2000, CKBT was voted best in category for customer relationship management techniques in the Direct Marketing Association/Royal Mail awards.
Says chief executive Mark Richardson: 'What makes us different from our competition is that, because we are independent, clients have access to senior members of staff. The success of our formula is demonstrated by the fact that during the financial period to 31 December 2000 we won l3 of the 16 new contracts for which we tendered.
'Expenditure on direct marketing continues to demonstrate strong growth over other forms of marketing, especially within the SME sector. With the spread of new technology and interactive forms of communications, expenditure on direct marketing is forecast to equal that of advertising by 2005.
'Our move to AIM will help us gain greater critical mass in the direct marketing marketplace, and obtain a high profile in providing new media services to established companies. We are ideally placed to take advantage of the growth in direct marketing, and will continue to evolve through acquisition and organic growth.'
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