Zeus Capital advising CentralNic on its planned AIM IPO and £7 million fundraise

Zeus Capital, the corporate finance advisory firm with offices in Manchester, London and Birmingham, is advising CentralNic Group plc on its planned AIM IPO and £7million fundraise. Dealings are expected to commence at the beginning of September 2013. The company is expected to have a market capitalisation of c.£32 million. Zeus Capital is acting as Nominated Adviser and sole Broker.

Overview of CentralNic

• CentralNic  is a registry service provider which supports top level domains (“TLDs” such as .la) and second level domains (“SLDs” such as .uk.com), distributing and powering domain names that end with those TLDs and SLDs, such as www.artweek.la and www.avon.uk.com
• CentralNic uses its in-house developed IT platform to provide the domain name system (“DNS”) infrastructure and distribute its own portfolio of domain names and for third party owners of TLDs and SLDs (also known as “registry operators”)
• CentralNic distributes to a global network of “registrars” (retailers such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions), which sell these to end users
• The Company owns a portfolio of 24 premium domain names including .uk.com and .us.com, which enables it to market subdomains such as avon.uk.com and activia.us.com to customers through its distribution network
• CentralNic currently has contracts to provide distribution services for seven other domains including two country codes, .LA and .PW
• CentralNic has also been awarded the exclusive distribution contracts for 60 new TLDs, 25 of which are already confirmed to launch through CentralNic, including:
  • .wiki, the TLD for one of the world’s
    best known website types;
  • .college, for education institutions
    globally;
  • .rest, the global TLD for restaurants;
  • .contact, the TLD for contact forms and applications;
  • .reit, for real estate investment trusts;
  • .xyz, the most generic TLD, suitable for any use and,
  • .bar, the TLD for bars

Following recent industry developments and regulatory changes, CentralNic expects, by virtue of its contracts and existing technical and distribution infrastructure, to benefit from a major expansion in the number of generic top level domains (gTLDs”) such as .wiki and .college, which are expected to start operating from the end of 2013.

The Directors believe that the funds raised for the Group by the placing of shares will allow the Group to enhance its global distribution network, acquire interests in new gTLDs, expand its own retail business and obtain contracts from governments to operate their country code TLDs (“ccTLDs”), especially in developing markets.

John Goold, Joint Chief Executive of Zeus Capital commented;
“We are delighted to be advising CentralNic on its planned AIM IPO and fundraising. We believe the Company has an exciting future which the listing on AIM will help to accelerate. The has swiftly followed the admission to AIM of Conviviality Retail and further demonstrates the breadth of services that we offer and the range of companies that Zeus Capital works with.”