Re Joint Venture
March 15 2002 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:0134T
First Artist Corporation PLC
15 March 2002
Embargoed Release: 0700 hours, 15th March 2002
First Artist Corporation plc ("First Artist" or "the Company")
Announces Joint Venture
First Artist, the AIM listed football management company, announces that the
Company and its Swiss-based subsidiary, FIMO Sport Promotion AG, ("FIMO") have
reached agreement with two of the leading European football management agencies.
Superfute FA ("Superfute") of Portugal and Media Global Audiovisual SL ("Media
Global") of Spain will, in partnership with First Artist and FIMO, establish a
Joint Venture company known as International Profoot Services Group ("IPS").
IPS will be able to leverage considerable cross border market intelligence
between four of the largest football markets in Europe - the UK, Italy, Spain
and Portugal. Each partner will exchange resources to identify the best sports
solution for each client.
The joint venture brings together a range of experienced FIFA agents including
Jon and Phil Smith (First Artist), Zoran Stojadinovic and Angel Castell (Media
Global), Vincenzo Morabito and Vinicio Fioranelli (FIMO) and Jose Veiga and
Alejandro Pinto da Costa (Superfute).
This agreement means that First Artist and FIMO will have the right to manage
the interests and marketing of any of Superfute or Media Global's portfolio of
players should they be playing for football clubs within the United Kingdom and
Italy respectively. Reciprocally, Superfute and Media Global will have the right
to manage the interests of any of First Artist or FIMO's players who might play
for football clubs within Spain or Portugal. The speed of transactions is also
likely to increase.
IPS will offer a range of value added services to footballers including wealth
management, sponsorship opportunities, banking and insurance advice. These will
be outsourced to specialist third party professionals and will be based in IPS'
headquarters in Switzerland. First Artist will make an initial low cost
investment to fund the set up of this operation and its ongoing working capital
requirements.
IPS will actively explore the possibility of accessing other important
footballing markets (i.e. Germany) as the opportunity arises.
Jon Smith, Chief Executive of First Artist, commented:
"This agreement underlines the truly exciting possibilities that can be realised
by the coming together of First Artist and FIMO. We have no doubts as to the
potential that this union offers and to see that promise begin to emerge so
rapidly is deeply gratifying. We will seek to further extend our penetration
into the global football management market."
Vinicio Fioranelli, Director of First Artist and FIMO commented:
"IPS will bring added value to future cross border transactions and will enable
a greater range of services to be offered to players. This agreement cements our
position as one of the leading if not the leading agency in Europe."
For further details please contact:
Jon Smith/Phil Smith Tel: 020 8900 1818
First Artist Corporation Plc
www.1startist.com
Adam Reynolds/Takki Sulaiman Tel: 020 7735 9415
Hansard Communications
www.hansardcommunications.com
Notes to Editors:-
1. According to UEFA's Football Transfer System report (October 2000), England,
Scotland, Spain and Italy were the four highest net transfer spending
countries in the World for the three seasons 1997/98 to 1999/2000.
2. First Artist (FAN.L) listed on AIM in December 2001 having come to OFEX in
March 2001.
3. First Artist is one of the largest football player agencies with 400 players
under management.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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