Prime’s chairman, Paul Ramsay said today “We believe that destra have developed a unique and highly attractive business model in the digital marketplace which will represent an important component of Prime’s digital strategy in the future."
Prime TV to invest up to $10.4 Million of equity in Destra
Prime Television (Prime) and destra Corporation (destra) today announce that Prime has agreed to invest up to $10.4 million of equity into destra (representing up to an approximate 15% stake) as a strategic investor. Prime will work with and assist destra to drive the growth of destra’s digital media business through projects and initiatives relating to production, advertising and cross-selling of content.
The introduction of Prime as a strategic investor in destra represents a key development in Prime’s digital strategy (announced last September) to focus on leveraging its existing assets and brand strength into new media opportunities, and is consistent with destra’s ongoing strategy of monetising its content and community capabilities by developing new distribution platforms.
The investment will take the form of a $7.3 million upfront investment by Prime to acquire 28 million destra shares at 26.0 cents, thereby providing Prime with an initial stake of approximately 13%. The upfront investment is to be completed next week.
To the extent destra’s acquisition of Magna Pacific proceeds as expected, Prime will in conjunction with completion of the acquisition, acquire a further 12 million shares at 26 cents for a consideration of $3.1 million taking Prime’s holding up to approximately 15%. It is expected that Warwick Syphers, CEO of Prime, will join the destra board following the initial placement.
Prime’s chairman, Paul Ramsay said today “We believe that destra have developed a unique and highly attractive business model in the digital marketplace which will represent an important component of Prime’s digital strategy in the future. Prime’s strong capability in the mass free to air (FTA) distribution of TV, radio, and progressively online content, is highly complementary with destra’s core capability in licensing, producing and building communities around such content. We look forward to working with destra to identify and capitalise upon opportunities in the digital media space.”
Carl Olsen, destra’s chairman, commented “We are delighted that Prime has chosen destra as a strategic partner and is to become a cornerstone shareholder in our Company. The opportunities that we have already identified with Prime are substantial and therefore we are excited about developing these initiatives further. In addition, the capital injection by Prime will provide destra with financial flexibility in respect of its current and future funding requirements such as the proposed acquisition of Magna Pacific and other potential bolt-on acquisitions.”