Thursday, October 11, 2012

SearchMedia Announces New Chief Operating Officer for its China Operations

SOURCE:  SearchMedia Holdings Limited


Completion of Subsidiary Divestiture and Earnout Reduction

SearchMedia Holdings Limited (“SearchMedia” or the “Company”) (NYSE MKT: IDI) (NYSE MKT: IDI.WS), one of China's leading nationwide multi-platform media companies, today announced it has appointed Mr. Stephen Zhu as the Chief Operating Officer of its China operations, effective August 20, 2012 and has also divested its subsidiary Qingdao Kaixiang Advertising Co. Ltd. (“Qingdao”) in order to further its planned minimization of the Company’s outstanding earnout liability.

Mr. Zhu joins SearchMedia from Symbol Media, an integrated outdoor advertising company he founded in 2009, whose client base includes well-recognized brands such as KFC, Puma, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, AIA, Samsung, Canon, Ikea, Land Rover and covered many industry sectors including finance, auto, retail and electronics. Symbol Media is the Company’s partner for its previously announced Luxury Mall LCD Joint Venture. Mr. Zhu has now joined SearchMedia full-time as its Chief Operating Officer of China Operations. Through his ten years of experience in the out-of-home advertising industry, Mr. Zhu has developed deep relationships with the major advertising agencies in China, including Kinetic, Zenith, Optimum, Carat, McCann and Dentsu. Mr. Zhu has also been a market leader developing 3D advertising platforms within China.

As part of its previously announced Integration Program and based on an analysis of the recent performance and projections of Qingdao, the Company has agreed to divest Qingdao back to its previous owners and eliminate the related earn-out liability of $4.1 million. Beginning August 31, 2012, Qingdao's operating results will no longer be part of the Company's consolidated financial statements. The Company believes that the cost savings from not carrying out the remaining earnout obligations pursuant to the acquisition agreement for Qingdao frees up the Company's resources for use in other more promising opportunities. Through the divestiture of Qingdao, the Company has materially reduced its outstanding earn-out obligations by 41% from $10.1 million to $6.0 million.
Peter W.H. Tan, Chief Executive Officer of SearchMedia, remarked, “We are thrilled to have Stephen Zhu join as Chief Operating Officer of our China operations. I have known Stephen for over five years and have previously invested in some of his proprietary concessions. Stephen has a great reputation in the China out-of-home advertising industry and he will be an important catalyst in the sales effort with our recently announced major concessions with Home Inns & Hotel Management Inc. and our Luxury Mall LCD Joint Venture. Furthermore, his strong government relations and managerial and business development experience will enhance our growth objectives and help us execute our new strategic initiatives. Stephen will be joined by one of the most talented sales and media development teams in Shanghai.

On the decision to divest Qingdao, Tan added, “It is never an easy decision to dispose of an operating subsidiary that has been with the Group from the outset, but we feel that given the significant and persistent declining sales and profitability trend of Qingdao over the last four years, in order to preserve shareholder value and allow the Company to pursue additional accretive concessions, it is in the best interests of the Group to enter into a separation agreement with Qingdao. It is, of course, beneficial as a whole to be able to eliminate from our balance sheet outstanding earn-out and tax liabilities in the aggregate amount of $6.8 million. Qingdao represented only 5% of our Group revenue in 2011 and we believe that this divestiture will have a minimal impact on our future financial performance.”

Peter Chan, Interim Chief Financial Officer of SearchMedia, added, “After a thorough analysis, we have concluded that it is in the Company’s best interest to divest Qingdao back to its ex-owners in exchange for the cancellation of the $4.1 million cash earn-out due and elimination of $2.7 million tax liabilities and $1.9 million inter-company liabilities. With the Qingdao divestment, we expect a non-cash disposal loss of $3.2 million against our year-to-date June 30, 2012 net income of $9.8 million. We believe the Qingdao divestment will result in a large cash savings and the elimination of certain liabilities would improve the Company liquidity and bolster its balance sheet allowing it to pursue other concessions with better returns.”

Availability of Form 20-F For Year Ended December 31, 2011
On May 15, 2012, the Company filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011, which includes the Company’s audited financial statements (the “2011 Form 20-F”). The 2011 Form 20-F is available on the Company’s website at www.searchmediaholdings.com by clicking “Investor Relations”, then “SEC Filings”. The Company will send a hard copy of the Company’s complete 2011 Form 20-F upon the request of a shareholder to ir@searchmediaholdings.com or by requesting a hard copy of the 2011 Form 20-F on the Company’s website.

 

SearchMedia Reports Unaudited Financial Results for the First Six Months of 2012

Source:  SearchMedia Holdings Limited


SearchMedia Holdings Limited (“SearchMedia”) (NYSE MKT:IDI),(NYSE MKT:IDI.WS), one of China's leading nationwide multi-platform media companies, today reported unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2012

Financial Highlights for the Six Months ended June 30, 2012
  • Revenue decreased 43% year-on-year from $28.3 million to $16.1 million.
  • Operating profit increased from $1.8 million to $10.8 million year-on-year.
  • Net profit increased from $0.7 million to $9.8 million year-on-year mainly attributable to one time gain on disposal of subsidiaries and gain from extinguishment of acquisition consideration.
  • Acquisition consideration payable reduced from $23.2 million at year end 2011 to $10.1 million at June 30, 2012.
  • Upon closing of the $6.1 million equity investment and conversion of the $3.1 million convertible notes including accrued interest announced separately today, shareholders’ equity will increase to $7.2 million.
Unaudited Financial Results for the Six Months ended June 30, 2012
Revenue decreased 43% to $16.1 million in the first six months of 2012 from $28.3 million for the same period last year primarily due to the divestiture of Zhejiang Continental and Shenyang Jingli, the streamlining of Ad-Icon Shanghai’s non-profitable elevator business and the termination of our VIE structure.

Gross profit decreased year-on-year from $8.1 million in the same period last year to $2.6 million as a result of a decrease in revenue during the period, divestiture of Shenyang Jingli, Zhejiang Continental, and streamlining of the Ad Icon Shanghai elevator business while still incurring contracted advertising space lease costs. Gross margin decreased to 16% from 29% in the same period last year due to higher concession costs, higher network expansion cost, higher percentage of agency business in advertising revenue, and recent subsidiaries separation and elevator business streamlining.

Total operating expenses for the first six months of 2012 were $4.8 million compared to $6.4 million for the prior year period as a result of business streamlining and management's continued efforts to control costs. Sales and marketing expenses decreased 49% to $1.3 million from $2.5 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting a proportional decrease in sales commissions as a result of lower revenue. General and administrative expenses decreased 8% to $3.5 million from $3.9 million in the prior year period, reflecting a decrease in salary expense driven by business streamlining and management’s efforts in controlling costs.

Operating profit was $10.8 million compared to $1.8 million due to the $13.0 million gain on disposal of subsidiaries and extinguishment of certain acquisition consideration payable. Net profit for the first half of 2012 was $9.8 million compared to $0.7 million in the prior year period due to a gain on the disposal of subsidiaries and the extinguishment of certain acquisition consideration payable.

Adjusted net loss for the first half of 2012 was $2.0 million compared with net profit of $0.7 million after excluding non-cash items such as gain from the extinguishment of acquisition consideration payable of $3 million, gain on disposal of subsidiaries of $10 million, loss on abandonment of lease of $0.5 million, loss on disposal of fixed assets of $0.4 million, and share based compensation of $0.3 million. Please refer to the non-GAAP reconciliation table provided at the end of the release for a period-over-period comparison of non-cash adjustments.

Upon closing of the $6.1 million equity investment announced separately today, cash will increase to $9.3 million. Earnout liabilities as of June 30, 2012 totaled $10.1 million down from $23.2 million at December 31, 2011. Additional reduction of the earnout liability is expected in third quarter of 2012. For the six months ended June 30, 2012, the Company had a weighted average number of basic and diluted shares outstanding of 18.2 million shares.

Peter W.H. Tan, Chief Executive Officer of SearchMedia remarked, “The first six months of 2012 are an important transition period for the Company. We have strategically streamlined our business by closing unprofitable offices and divesting certain subsidiaries and eliminating the underlying earnout liability in order to pursue more accretive concession opportunities. These actions resulted in reduced performance in the first half of 2012. However, as shown by the recent announcement of our nationwide concession with Home Inns & Hotel Management, Inc.(“Home Inns”), and our new Luxury Mall LCD Advertising Joint Venture we believe that we will create significant shareholder value through strategic, long term proprietary concessions with prominent partners. We have additional concessions in our pipeline and we expect additional announcements during the balance of 2012. We expect these concessions will result in SearchMedia becoming a much larger and more profitable company and we will start to see the impact in the second half of 2012 as a result of the improved cash flow and cost savings. We estimate revenue per location of approximately $200,000 for the Luxury Mall LCD Joint Venture with a net margin of 40% and over $120,000 in revenue per location for the Home Inns concession with net margin of 30%. The Company also eliminated its VIE structure in December 2011 in order that our shareholders have a direct interest in all of the operations and subsidiaries, in addition to improving transparency.

SearchMedia Announces New Luxury Mall LCD Advertising Joint Venture; Completion of New $6.1 Million Common Share Investment

SOURCE:  SearchMedia Holdings Limited


SearchMedia Holdings Limited (“SearchMedia” or the “Company”) (NYSE MKT: IDI) ((NYSE MKT: IDI.WS), one of China's leading nationwide multi-platform media companies, today announced that it will establish a joint venture in Shanghai for a new major luxury mall concession (“LCD Joint Venture”). Additionally, the Company announced that it has entered into an agreement for a new private placement of up to 10.0 million common shares, of which the Company has closed the first tranche of 6.1 million shares, with Frost Gamma Investment Trust, an entity affiliated with Dr. Phillip Frost, our largest shareholder, TGC Partners Limited, an entity affiliated with our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter W. H. Tan, TGC Media Investments II Corp., a private investment company based in Singapore, Nan Fung Group (“Nan Fung”), one of current largest investors and Titan Multi-Asset Fund SPC, a fund controlled by Yuanta Asset Management (“Titan Yuanta”).

The new LCD Joint Venture has been formed with Shanghai’s Symbol Media Corporation (“Symbol Media”) to build a new network of large format LCD screens at prominent entry points of high end shopping centers located at major central business district locations in Shanghai, mainly located along the Huai Hai Road and Nanjing West Road vicinity. SearchMedia shall own 51% of the Joint Venture with its local partner Symbol Media and its affiliates owning the remaining 49%. SearchMedia will also have the option to acquire the remaining 49% of the LCD Joint Venture starting in 2014. 

Screens for the network are approximately 70 inches in length, allowing advertisers to promote their brands with large digital billboards in high impact locations with prominent street level views. Advertisements are broadcast in intervals which attract more attention to the screens while allowing a higher revenue yield per location. In addition, many of the screen locations are located adjacent to subway stations and busy intersections, providing an even wider consumer reach.
The LCD Joint Venture intends to acquire the rights to many prestigious high end shopping centers in prime locations in Shanghai including CITIC Plaza, Cloud Nine Mall, Grand Gateway Mall, Hong Kong Plaza, Jiu Guang Emporium, K11 New World Malls, Metro City, Printemps China, Raffles City, The 6th Goods Shopping Mall and Xin Tian Di. 

Peter W.H. Tan, Chief Executive Officer of SearchMedia, remarked, “We are very excited for our new LCD Joint Venture which will give us a very strong presence in heavily trafficked, Grade A shopping centers. Advertisers strongly desire access to these prominent locations with high scarcity value, especially since our LCD displays are very close to the point of purchase. Approximately 40% of all global luxury sales are now generated in China, with much of the sales from Grade A luxury shopping centers. We believe this new agreement will allow us to provide a very attractive long term advertising solution for many of our international, national and local advertisers, especially luxury good brands. We anticipate that the network will be built out first within Shanghai and then expanded to other Tier I and Tier II cities throughout China. As evidenced through this new concession and our recently announced new nationwide concession with Home Inns & Hotel Management Inc. (“Home Inns”), we expect to continue to add new concessions with prominent partners that will accelerate our growth and create value for our shareholders.” 

The Company has also closed the first tranche of a new common share private placement of $6,100,000 at a price of $1.00 per share to primarily finance our investment of the new LCD Joint Venture and the previously announced new concession with Home Inns. As part of this new investment, all of our investors in the Convertible Note Offering completed in February 2012 have agreed to also convert their Convertible Notes (including accrued interest) into common shares. The private placement contemplates a second tranche of an additional 3.9 million shares to be completed by September 30, 2012. Proforma for the new $6.1 million private placement and conversion of the Company’s existing Convertible Notes, the Company will have basic and diluted shares outstanding of 27.5 million shares. 

Among those investors in the private placement, Nan Fung is a privately held group of companies and has grown into one of Hong Kong's and China’s most established property developers which is principally engaged in the business of property development, property investment, construction, property management, investment and financing. Titan Yuanta, a fund managed by a subsidiary of Yuanta Financial Holdings which is a comprehensive financial investment services firm. Yuanta remains a leader in securities-related businesses in Taiwan, and offers a full range of additional complementary services through its various subsidiaries. In addition to securities brokerage and securities financing, it also provides products and services in banking, futures, investment trust, investment consulting, venture capital, and asset management. Yuanta maintains a distribution network of 141 securities branches and 88 banking branches combined with 7,600 professionals providing clients with diversified financial services. 

Peter W. H. Tan commented, “We are pleased by the additional capital commitment and support from our investors and a new strategic investor, which allows us to further capture the attractive market opportunities within China’s media industry. Dr. Frost and the members of the Frost Group have been and continue to be very supportive of the Company, including strategic, operational and financial support and we intend to continue a very close relationship with them. We are also pleased to have Nan Fung participating in this equity raise. As one of the most prominent property developers and fund managers in Greater China, we look forwarded to continuing to cooperate with Nan Fung on different opportunities in the future. We are also proud to have added Titan Yuanta as a new shareholder. As mentioned in previous announcements, we are very focused in expanding our investor base throughout China and Asia and the addition of Titan Yuanta as a hallmark investor is the first step in that strategy. This capital raise also both strengthens our capitalization and simplifies our capital structure as we now have converted all of our outstanding Convertible Notes to common shares.