Reverse takeover sees Power pay #55m for Mean Fiddler Holdings

Meanfiddler.com, the British-based music promotions group owned by Mr Vince Power, from Co Waterford, has bought Mean Fiddler Holdings Limited in a reverse takeover valued at £33.5 million sterling (#55.1 million).

The purchase will be funded by the issue of 47.8 million shares and the company plans to raise an additional £4£7 million sterling, net of expenses.

Mean Fiddler Holdings will get a listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange under the umbrella of its listed dot.com spin-off meanfiddler.com

The live entertainment web casting dot.com unit, which is currently worth around £10 million sterling, was set up by Mr Power in May last year and listed on AIM. "This transaction offers the proposed enlarged group the opportunity of expansion in the fast growing live music market," Mr Power, who is chairman, said.

"A listing on AIM for Mean Fiddler Holdings means we will be able to deliver exciting live music opportunities for the future by expanding our offering both nationally and internationally."

Shares in meanfiddler.com were suspended in January at 4-1/4 pence sterling when plans for the reverse takeover first came to light.

Over the past 19 years Mean Fiddler has become synonymous with some of the biggest festivals and venues in the UK and Ireland.

Mr Power, born in Kilmacthomas, in the 1940s, gave up a scholarship to train as an artificial inseminator in Galway in his teenage years, to carve a career for himself in London.

He set up Mean Fiddler live music club in north-west London 19 years ago and built a major musical empire which now includes clubs and venues like the Jazz Cafe and Astoria in London and festivals such as Reading and Leeds, Creamfields and Tribal Gathering.

The enlarged group, which is to change its name to Mean Fiddler Music Group plc, will have improved bargaining power with artists and recording companies as it prepares to set up a digital television channel over the next two years, the company said.

Turnover for the group last year totalled £25.5 million sterling and pre-tax was £1.79 million but was adversely affected by the start-up costs for the Leeds Festival which moved into profit in 2000.