Geldof company in acquisition deal

A FLEDGLING production company in the North has been acquired in a deal which could be worth up to £796,000 by a UK media group co-founded by Bob Geldof.

Belfast-based Below the Radar has been bought by Ten Alps, the UK factual media company. London-based Ten Alps, which is listed on AIM, employs 500-plus staff. It posted a turnover of £81 million for the year to March 2008. In the last seven years it has made 18 acquisitions.

Ten Alps latest acquisition of the Belfast company is conditional on a share placing on AIM and is expected to be formalised in the early part of next week.

Below the Radar was founded in 2006 by award-winning journalists Trevor Birney and Ruth O'Reilly after careers in news-papers, radio and TV. The company, which employs 11 full-time staff, has made current affairs and factual films for BBC Newsnight, RTÉ Prime Time, Channel 4 Newsand BBC Northern Ireland.

Alex Connock, CEO of Ten Alps said it was happy to be in Northern Ireland “with the acquisition of this young, ambitious company and we want to help grow it in a fast-evolving market over here”.

Under the terms of the acquisition deal the London group said it has taken over Below the Radar for an initial cash consideration of £100,000 with a further deferred payment equal to £676,000, to be settled in Ten Alps shares and or cash.

The deferred consideration is dependent on the level of profit-ability of Below the Radar for the years ended January 31st, 2010 and January 31st, 2011. Ten Alps also plans to provide additional working capital of up to £124,000 post acquisition.