Companies: TAN   

With the silly season fast approaching, writes Andrew Chilvers, it seems oddly appropriate that a company, with a name like Lovely Bubbly, should list on PLUS.

The entrepreneur behind the idea is Roy Stanley, CEO of AIM-listed Tanfield Group and shareholder in St Helen’s Capital, adviser to PLUS Markets companies.
For Stanley, Lovely Bubbly is hoping to do for the vintage champagne market what corporate wine tasting did for French plonk: make it popular amid fierce New World competition.

The company will act in partnership with people from local corporate networks paying largely retired professionals 15 per cent commission on all the champagne sold following a corporate event. Lovely Bubbly has exclusive contracts with various champagne companies in France, helping to breathe life into an undeveloped market, while sourcing new distribution channels.

Stanley claims the listing ticks several boxes, the main one being an incentive for senior staffers to hold shares in a publicly-listed venture. As well as raising the company’s profile, Stanley is also considering a future funding to start making acquisitions, mainly in the corporate event management business.

Financials for the first six months of 2006 revealed £102,775 turnover and pre-tax profits of £30,573. Lovely Bubbly’s current share price is 20.5p, with a market cap of approximately £2 million. Long-term, Stanley hopes to roll out the business nationwide – for the moment it holds events around Leeds and Manchester – and eventually take Lovely Bubbly onto AIM.

So far so good for the business, but the potential downside could be attracting the necessary network partners and keeping the supply of French champagne flowing.

Father of invention
Tough talking Trevor Baylis has spent a lifetime either inventing or sticking up for inventors and start-up entrepreneurs against the evils of the corporate machine.
With Trevor Baylis Brands, for the past four years he has provided route-to-market services for inventors and innovators, and a source of ideas and inventions for the business community. Recently, he took the company onto PLUS.

Backed by an experienced management team, including David Bunting – a former chief executive of France Telecom’s UK operations – Baylis is using the listing to source funds and extend the company’s business model to create spin offs.

When investing, Trevor Baylis Brands takes a stake in the company, usually around a third, then looks to secure second-round funding for the business before exiting in three to five years.

To convince possible investors of the company’s potential, Trevor Baylis Brands gives examples of several successes, such as Direct Air Dryers, which has developed a range of devices for the rapid drying of wet surfaces. Significant sales have been made to the flood restoration industry and trials are currently being undertaken by a distributor in the US with a view to possible worldwide exploitation.

Nevertheless, the response to Trevor Baylis Brands from investors has, so far, been lukewarm, with the share price slowly falling from a high of 18p to 14.5p.

Silverback seeks dominance
Elsewhere, PLUS has attracted the attention of US-based e-marketing firm Silverback Media.

Silverback raised approximately £2 million before expenses, made up of £535,000 in long-term debt and just over £1.5 million in equity at 28.5p per share. At listing, Silverback had a market cap of just under £10.25 million.

The funds were used in part to finance the acquisition of Cellcast Interactif, a French provider of mobile marketing services. The remainder will be used to fund the company’s expansion strategy and provide working capital. But investors have yet to be impressed here either. Since the company debuted, at 42.5p per share, its price has tumbled to a low of 32p.