Companies: AFN    ONL   

Aim-listed games publisher Akaei said it has signed a deal with 'Arcominteractive' to distribute its Celtic and Rangers Football management licences in Northern Ireland and Eire today. James Crux reports.

Arcominteractive is one of Northern Ireland's 'leading distributors of new and interactive media', according to Akaei's managing director Rod Cobain. He explained that today's deal gives Essex-headquartered Akaei (AKI) exposure to key 'fan base' territories for both 'old firm' giants, in the 'lucrative customer base' of Ireland. He added that both titles are being developed by Smoking Gun Productions and are the first in a possible series of football games.

Last month, Akaei announced its development and publishing deal with Celtic, under which it acquired the worldwide rights to develop, sell and market computer games based on the Glasgow club across a range of platforms, including the Game Boy Advance, PC CD-ROM and the next generation consoles, for a three-year period. This followed a tie-up with Celtic's arch rivals Rangers in October. Significantly, Akaei recently announced its expansion into the German, Austrian and Swiss markets through a distribution deal with Kellas International.

Formerly the games development and publishing subsidiary of Aim-listed On-Line (ONL), the venture that spun out financial website ADVFN.com (AFN), Akaei floated last July, having raised £125,000 net in a placing of over 4 million shares at 10p. Its latest preliminary numbers to end-June reflected the period before it came to market, with losses before tax coming in at £350,227 on sales of £816,513.

Punters were unimpressed with the news in early trading and the shares were unchanged at 3.75p, valuing the business at just £2.67 million.