Corgi International Limited Announces Extraordinary General Meeting on December 20 to Approve Master Replicas Merger
by Jay Cochran
November 29, 2006
Corgi International Limited (NasdaqGM: CRGI) announced today that it has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on December 20, 2006 to approve the proposed acquisition of Cards Inc. Limited, the proposed merger of Master Replicas Inc. and an associated $17.6 million equity financing. The notice of extraordinary general meeting and associated proxy statement was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 6-K on November 17, 2006.
The Board of Directors of Corgi has recommended that shareholders approve the proposals, as it believes they will enable the company to be the leader in the licensed collectibles market. The company will have licenses for eight of the top nine best selling movie franchises, a portfolio that makes it an industry leader. George Volanakis, Chief Executive Officer of Corgi, noted “We believe the economies of scale provided by the combination of the three companies will allow greater manufacturing and operational efficiencies, higher margins and greater opportunities for branding with customers. Moreover, the combined companies will have complementary distribution channels allowing for more effective sales and marketing strategies.”
Corgi is one of the oldest marketers of collectible die-cast models of trucks, buses, cars and airplanes in the world. Corgi offers a broad portfolio of products ranging from special interest items to more popular, often license-based, items. The majority of Corgi’s product lines are detailed, scale replicas of transport vehicles, produced in strictly limited numbers. Increasingly, Corgi is broadening its product lines to include more mixed scale, lower-priced, die-cast lines which are sold in wider distribution channels. Corgi’s license portfolio currently includes Batman and James Bond for all past and current movies for collectible die-cast vehicles.
Master Replicas is a leading retailer of movie and television prop replicas. These products are typically (a) authentic, physical representations of award winning digital content, or (b) exact replicas of physical objects. With an experienced executive team, Master Replicas leverages a combination of professional business management with extensive prop replica experience. Master Replicas currently has licenses with LucasFilm (Star Wars), Disney (Classics, Pirates of the Caribbean, Narnia), New Line (Lord of the Rings), Marvel (Classics, Spider Man, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, X-Men), Fox (Predator, Alien), CBS (Star Trek) and Sony (Men in Black).
Cards Inc. has secured licenses from major production companies for the manufacture and distribution of gift merchandise and collectible products based upon movies and television shows. Cards is also the exclusive collectibles supplier for Toys-R-Us in the United Kingdom. Cards’ license portfolio currently includes the Harry Potter Master Toy License for Europe, the Star Wars Master Gift License for Europe, the upcoming Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebration in London and the Pirates of the Caribbean Master Gift License for Europe.
It is anticipated that upon closing of the merger, Michael Cookson, currently the Chief Executive Officer of Master Replicas, will become the Chief Executive Officer of the combined company and Jennifer Klatt, currently the Chief Financial Officer of Master Replicas, will assume the position of Chief Financial Officer of the combined company.
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