Unaudited Interim Results for the period ended 31 March 2016

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Introduction

I am pleased to report that the Company has had an active six month period ending 31 March 2016.

During the period the Company placed 40,000,000 shares at 1.5p each raising a total of £600,000 before costs. Having monitored the development of the Simplestream business carefully since YOLO's original investment in January 2015, your Board took up its right to advance a further £257,384 to Simplestream by way of a convertible loan note.

The Company continues to actively look for further investment opportunities in pursuit of its investment strategy. Our stated aim is to be a successful and profitable investment company by focussing on technology, travel, leisure and media businesses. We will achieve this by identifying early stage or turnaround opportunities that require investment and / or have potential for a reverse takeover. We will invest into businesses with content and delivery capability that engage customers, monetise the user experience and have potential to scale. Our philosophy is to find attractive businesses and projects that will create value for shareholders and utilise our expertise and network contacts.

Financial review

The Board has been selective in the transactions made and our growing investment portfolio now consists of businesses with strong technology and content themes. Each of the businesses are pioneers and innovators in their sectors and are disrupting the space that they are in, being consistent with YOLO's investment criteria.

The current portfolio of investments consists of:

Gfinity Plc - total investment at cost of £364,650

Gfinity is an end to end eSports (also known as competitive gaming or electronic sports) solution, founded in 2012. Gfinity has quickly established itself as one of the world's leading eSports companies, capable of providing an end to end solution and with a strong reputation for quality across publishers, players and eSports fans. It stages elite tournaments for the top players in the world, producing industry leading broadcasts and providing on-line competitions and content to engage the eSports community. Gfinity provides a hub for a rapidly expanding community that plays a range of electronic games such as Call of Duty, League of Legends, FIFA 2016, Halo and Starcraft. This platform enables Gfinity to run a regular roster of on-line competitions, leagues and ladders with the opportunity for gamers to win substantial prize money and/or pit their skills against professional and widely-followed "star" players.

The gaming industry has been growing at an average of 10% year-on-year and is now more valuable than both the music and film industries. This is part of a revolution in the way that millennials consume media. 

Gfinity has strong potential for monetising commercial rights attached to broadcasts and events, with access to a wide range of ancillary revenue streams such as sponsorship, advertising, broadcast rights, pay per view, data, third party events and promotions, Pay to Play, Ticketing, Betting , Fantasy and an Xbox App (Build Your Own Tournament).

Simplestream Limited - total investment at cost of £814,884

YOLO's investment has been into two growing and highly innovative TV platforms, namely Simplestream and TV Player, both of which are experiencing strong growth in a market where user behaviour is transforming the way TV content is distributed, broadcast and consumed. These types of services, which deliver television content over the internet, are called Over The Top or OTT services. Such is the demand for watching television online, that OTT services are forecast to grow from $25 billion in 2014 to $54 billion in 2029 (source: Markets & Markets - OTT Market Report 2014-2019), with over $1 billion generated each year in the UK. The growth of OTT viewing is fueled by the continued growth of smartphone, tablet and so called "streaming stick" sales.

The Simplestream platform has already been adopted by leading entertainment broadcasters including QVC, Box Plus Network, Scripps, Turner and Discovery Networks to deliver streamlined simulcasting, real-time editing and live-to-VOD publishing of multiple channels, to any platform and device within a single unified workflow. The company has also recently announced a strategic partnership with sports distribution experts MP & Silva.

TVPlayer, a next generation B2C Over-The-Top (OTT) TV platform is now in regular use by over 540,000 monthly active users. TVPlayer is a disruptor using its in-house technology platform to reach the next generation of TV viewer who are intent on watching their media content online, whether at home or on the go. TVPlayer is fully-licensed, having entered into multi-year content licensing agreements with a wide range of both free-to-air and subscription television broadcasters. It streams over 100 of the UK's most popular TV channels to PCs, mobiles, tablets, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV and various set-top-boxes. 

TVPlayer generates revenue through two business models; firstly an ad-supported free-to-air TVPlayer service with 100+ channels and secondly a paid subscription service with TVPlayer Plus, which is the first service of its kind to offer premium channels in the UK without a contract, providing 25 additional premium channels for a monthly fee of between £4.99 and £6.99. Launched in October 2015 with no marketing to date, TVPlayer Plus already has an impressive 5,000 subscribers paying a monthly fee with a further 5,000 trialists. 

Both the TV Player and Simplestream businesses are well positioned to capitalise on the growth and user opportunities within the UK and International markets.

Audioboom Group Plc - total investment at cost of £275,654

AudioBoom Group Plc - AudioBoom works with some of the biggest names in sports and media such as the NFL, Premier League and BBC. The AudioBoom platform allows partners and users to bring non-music (radio) content to millions of listeners worldwide via the website, embedded players, apps, Facebook and Twitter.

Audioboom is an audio player software platform that enables the creation, broadcast and syndication of audio content across multiple networks and geographies. The platform enables partners to deliver their content to millions of listeners worldwide via embedded (in websites) players, mobile applications, Facebook & Twitter integration.  In the UK and US around 90% of the adult population still listen to radio and advertisers spend billions of dollars to reach them. However, the listening experience is shifting from streams to podcasting or radio on demand and advertisers are willing to pay more for the targeted "listens". The platform enables short-form audio playback over a number of channels; embedded in their own website, via the Audioboom website and app, Twitter or Facebook feeds, and submitted to iTunes as a podcast. 

Audioboom is highly scalable and operates in a global market serving an international audience with 4.6m registered users on their own website and App platform. While its content is mostly English language, there is no barrier to content in other languages. Going forward the company expects the highest listenership growth in the US and Asia (driven by momentum in partner content rather than Audioboom B2C marketing). Each "listen" is a revenue opportunity for the Company. Total listens for FY15 exceeded 300 million (12 months to 30 November 2014: 180 million). 

The focus has now switched to monetising the strategy. Audioboom forecasts 600 million "listens" for the FY 2016 (11.5m/ week) generating £1m of sales and providing a base for a substantial revenue ramp in FY17.  

Other achievements

On 20 January 2016 the Company completed a placing of 40m ordinary 1p shares for gross proceeds of £600,000 and issued warrants for 10m shares at an exercise price of 1.8p. On 29 January 2016, the Company completed a further investment in Simplestream Ltd by investing £257,384 through a convertible loan note in Simplestream ("Loan Notes"). The Loan Notes bear interest at a rate of 8% per annum and are repayable on or before 16 July 2018. In the event that the Loan Notes are not repaid by that date, or if Simplestream raises at least £500,000 though an issue of equity, the Loan Notes are convertible at the option of the Company into equity shares in Simplestream.

Post balance sheet events

The board continues to evaluate and consider investment opportunities in the technology, travel, leisure and media sectors and will only make investments in those projects which the board believes will create value for shareholders.

I would also like to thank our shareholders and advisors for continuing to support the board and our vision.

Simon Robinson
Chairman

2 June 2016

 

For further information please contact:

YOLO Leisure and Technology plc
Simon Lee Robinson	[email protected]
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP
Sandy Jamieson / Emma Earl	Tel: +44 20 7148 7900
Peterhouse Corporate Finance Limited Sole broker
Duncan Vasey / Lucy Williams	Tel: + 44 20 7220 9797
Walbrook PR Ltd	Tel: +44 20 7933 8787 or  [email protected]
Paul McManus	Mob: +44 7980 541 893
Sam Allen	Mob: +44 7884 664 686