Photon Changes Name to 'Enero'

Shareholders in Australian research and marcoms group Photon - which owns MR agencies The Leading Edge (TLE) and Jigsaw Research - have voted in favour of renaming the troubled company Enero, the Spanish word for 'January'.

In July 2010, the group announced it was struggling to pay the $AUD 176m worth of earn-out payments due to the owners of several agencies it had acquired. By September that year, the company had completed a recapitalisation through the issue of $AUD 103m worth of new shares, and it began simplifying its management and company structure under CEO Jeremy Phillips.

Philips resigned last December, after completing the restructure and reducing debt from $450m to zero in less than 18 months. During his nearly two years in post, he also reduced the number of Photon companies from 45 to 14, with researchers TLE and Jigsaw among those remaining.

Three months ago, Chairman John Porter (pictured) announced a new 'strategic direction' which involved the appointment of a new management team and a focus on collaboration to exploit the group's digital marketing skills across the group and across geographies.

At an extraordinary meeting held last Friday, Porter told shareholders: 'Part of this revitalisation of the company involves marking this fresh start with a new name and company identity. Enero is a good representation of the positive and re-invigorated company we now have.'

Porter also announced a share consolidation programme, to convert the firm's existing 1.5 billion shares to c. 85.8 million, allotting one new share for every 18 old ones held. This will leave Enero with a capital structure 'more comparable and appropriate' to a listed entity of its size, says Porter.

Web site: www.enero.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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