REG - Zoo Digital Group - Acquisition of remaining shares in ZOO Korea

Zoo DigitalAnnouncement

05/04/2023 07:15

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RNS Number : 3773V  Zoo Digital Group PLC  05 April 2023

5 April 2023

 

ZOO DIGITAL GROUP PLC

("ZOO", the "Group" or the "Company")

 

Acquisition of remaining shares in ZOO Korea

 

ZOO expands investment in Korean hub following strong first year performance

 

ZOO Digital Group plc (AIM: ZOO), a leading provider of end-to-end
cloud-based localisation and media services to the global entertainment
industry, today announces the acquisition of the remaining 49 per cent. of ZOO
Korea.

 

Since the Company acquired 51 per cent. of the equity in March 2022, ZOO
Korea has successfully expanded to deliver an in-territory servicing hub for
the most prestigious names in entertainment. The venture has helped to address
the growing global demand for Korean content and distribution of non-Korean
titles in the country with premium and secure provision of dubbing,
subtitling, quality control and media services.

 

In recent months, two global streaming services have worked with ZOO Korea and
further significant new opportunities are in the pipeline. Due to the
increased volumes of work, additional investment in people and infrastructure
is required to support demand and capture the growing in-territory market for
ZOO Korea's services. In FY22, ZOO Korea generated $1.2 million revenue and
$0.1 million profit and the Board believes that it is commercially
advantageous for ZOO Korea to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Group.
The Board estimates that $4.5 million of incremental revenues were recognised
across the Group in FY23 as a result of ZOO Korea and that it will generate
significant incremental revenue for the Group in future years through its own
operations in Korea as well as services provided assisting ZOO in the US and
UK.

 

Under the terms of the transaction, the Company will issue 550,000 ordinary
shares in ZOO Digital Group plc to the exiting shareholders of ZOO Korea and
make a one-off payment of $200,000 in consideration for their 49 per cent
stake.

 

Stuart Green, CEO of ZOO Digital, commented:

 

"We have been thrilled by the success of ZOO Korea since its inception 12
months ago. Our teams have built a productive and efficient working
relationship, revenues have exceeded initial expectations and customer
acceptance has been very high. This additional investment will consolidate the
full benefit of ZOO Korea's future growth to the Group and support our
long-term ambitions in the region."

 

Jonghyun Oh, Managing Director, ZOO Korea, added:

 

"The popularity of Korean-language film and TV has transformed South Korea
into one of the most exciting markets globally for content production. We
continue to see major international investment in original Korean programming,
underpinned by both new and returning series, which is driving demand for our
localisation and media services."

 

 

 For further enquiries, please contact:

 ZOO Digital Group plc                                                +44 (0) 114 241 3700
 Stuart Green - Chief Executive Officer
 Phillip Blundell - Chief Finance Officer

 Kam Bansil - Investor Relations

 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)  +44 (0) 20 7710 7600
 Fred Walsh / Tom Marsh / Richard Short

 Singer Capital Markets (Joint Broker)                                +44 (0) 20 7496 3000
 Shaun Dobson / Asha Chotai

 Instinctif Partners (Financial PR)                                   +44 (0) 207 457 2020
 Matthew Smallwood / Joe Quinlan                                      zoo@instinctif.com

 

About ZOO Digital Group plc:

ZOO Digital supports major Hollywood studios and streaming services to
globalise their content and reach audiences everywhere, by providing leading,
technology-enabled localisation and media services.

Founded in 2001, ZOO Digital operates from hubs in Los Angeles, London, Dubai,
Turkey, South Korea, India and Denmark with a development and production
centre in Sheffield, UK.

The Group provides media services through its platforms that include: ZOOsubs,
ZOOdubs and ZOOstudio. Its full-service proposition delivers the end-to-end
services required to prepare both original and catalogue content for digital
distribution; these services include dubbing, subtitling & captioning,
metadata creation & localisation, mastering, artwork localisation and
media processing. Alongside this offering, ZOO also provides its customers
with management platforms and strategic solutions to support their own
internal globalisation operations.

ZOO is a go-to service partner for media businesses looking to globalise their
content across different territories, languages and distribution platforms.
Using its innovative technology-enabled approach, ZOO helps its customers to
reduce time to market, lower costs and deliver high quality products to their
global audiences. The business has frameworks in place with all major
Hollywood studios and streaming services. Its customers include Disney,
NBCUniversal, HBO and Paramount Global.

ZOO's competitive advantage arises from three interlinking factors - the
leading role it has played in the digital transformation of its sector; the
world class proprietary platforms that it develops to enable this
transformation; and the global supply chain of thousands of freelancers,
working collaboratively in ZOO's platforms, which delivers services that scale
easily to meet demand. These factors combine to make ZOO uniquely placed to
capitalise on new market opportunities in a fast-paced and constantly evolving
industry.

www.zoodigital.com (http://www.zoodigital.com/)

 

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